Another Movie Review

Not so many years ago I had a dislike ofBrad Pitt. It was one of those irrational dislikes. I considered him a bad actor in bad movies. However, after I began to view his films the "exceptions" (Interview with a Vampire, Se7en, Fight Club, Snatch, 12 Monkeys) began to be the rule. Now I will not hesitate to say that he is generally a good actor in good movies.

I have come to the reverse conclusion about Nicolas Cage. For some reason I always gave him the benefit of a doubt, but especially after seeing such garbage as Wicker Man I realise that he is generally a terrible actor in terrible films. This newfound opinion of mine has been justified by my recent viewing of Lord of War.

Although that last film came out a year ago, I wish to review it, as it connects to international politics and other topics often addressed in this blog. This film was produced by and stars Cage, and was directed by Andrew Niccols of Gattaca. It is a film purportedly "based on actual events" that follows the life of Yuri Orlov, a Ukrainian immigrant to America who enters the international small arms trade. Long and short, he gets into the business with his brother, they prosper (most notably in the former USSR and Liberia) despite the dubious morality of their business, and then the dream falls apart with Yuri losing almost everything (including his family) before being bailed out by the US government to continue their dirty business. This is a movie with a moral to tell, and a strong agenda.

And in my opinion, it's absolute garbage. It fails to make a convincing sell: is it supposed to be a factual account? If so, then why does it take such egregious liberties with reality? The most outstanding of such errors involve such things as Interpol. Ethan Hawke plays an Interpol agent who is Cage's nemesis, pursuing him and attempting to bring him to justice. First of all, small arms dealing is hardly a criminal offence, but to push home the fact that the director thinks it is, we see an Interpol armed with the powers of search, seizure and arrest, not to mention warships and jet fighters!!!!! And silly me for thinking it was a database and information-sharing program. Apparently the audience is to believe that our hope and salvation relies on some sort of World Police to protect us from such horrors as arms trafficking. Further, large liberties are taken with Liberian history, geography, and reality. Why even mention the country if it is to be given a fictitious president, complete with a rapper-wannabe son and a Monrovia so rundown that even Cage's character, a guest and friend of the president, stays in a two-star prostitute-infested roach motel? Surely this has more to do with Americans' perceptions of Africa more than anything else, but more on that later.

Besides not being sure whether the film is fact or fiction, it is not sure whether to be a drama or a documentary. We are forced to sit through the pointlessness of Cage's character's family struggles, namely with the screwup younger brother with the heart of gold, and the beautiful wife who (somehow) doesn't know Yuri's true business and whose parents were killed in a violent crime with an illegally-purchased gun (liberals, high five!). Yet at the same time Cage narrates the entire film with lots of "did you know" facts that bore us and don't weave together a bigger picture (and the last shot's statement that the five biggest arms sellers are the five UN Security Council members is flat-out wrong, but presumeably numbers five and six, Germany and Canada, are too ideologically close to Hollywood to merit finger-pointing).

But finally, I disliked the film's message. The movie basically goes beyond a simple "guns are bad" and reaches a Michael Moore-ish "the American military industrial complex makes wars to sell guns and kill people". Hawke's character even goes on a tiresome rant about how even detaining Cage for one day will save countless lives in Africa, because of course Africans do not fight wars with each other unless white people tell them to, and are unable to acquire guns or other weapons from other sources (the movie never points out that the AK-47 has been officially copied and produced in 11 developing countries, and unofficially produced in many more). The film takes a very patronizing attitude towards Africa and the developing world: those people are beasts when armed, and its up to the enlightened members of the developed world to keep capitalists from manipulating these otherwise innocent children for evil.

There are other pointless political jabs - Cage's literally shadowy guardian angel is a Col. Oliver Southern (har har), and the otherwise admirable Ian Holm (Bilbo Baggins) wastes a role by being an arms trader different from Cage because he"chooses sides" and cares about outcomes - without ever explaining what this means, much unlike a similar but better debate in Spy Games (there is Brad Pitt again), and is promptly shot in the head. During a brief respite, when Yuri goes legitimate selling African timber and minerals, he makes a dig about being able to "legally exploit developing countries". Likewise, there's something about Cage doing drugs and having unprotected sex with prostitutes in Africa that is obviously supposed to lead to him contracting HIV, but apparently the director forgot to film that last scene.

Long and short, this film tries to do everything, and falls far flat. The strongest attempt at a moral decision it takes is when Yuri's wife calls for him to quit his work. Yuri responds "but someone will just fill my place anyway", to which his wife's response is "yes but you won't be doing it". So if we can't save the world, we should just wash our hands of it? That sounds like a message hearkening on left-leaning European international relations! This film draws on stereotypes and cliches, as well as pure unrealities (the Sierra Leonian RUF apparently operates in the desert, and has all its intended victims kept in a refugee camp right next to the purchase point for the machine guns to kill them with - how convenient! too bad the RUF operated in a jungle and used machetes in real life...) in order to make America feel guilty for being evil. And admittedly, most of today's weapons come from North America. But this is the real world, and arms sales is a real business (and is often in the realm of international relations and not at all being as clearly an evil as this movie would have us believe), and as even Cage points out, if we don't arm these militaries, it is not like someone else will.

A Modest Proposal

This is just me thinking out loud on this one...

On Friday I had the dubious honor of dropping my wife off at her sales job...at five in the morning. Her place of work was already swarming with eager shoppers, and was such a notable event that the television camera crews were already filming it for the evening news. Thus began "Black Friday", the day of frenzied shopping resembling ever so much a school of sharks around fresh meat. Economic sources indicate that this day of mayhem is likely to be matched in sales on "Cyber Monday" (when apparently millions of slackers use their companies' internet connections to purchase Christmas presents) and the last Saturday before Christmas (which is generally when slackers like me - men? - go shopping).

All this leads me to wonder: are people overdoing this Christmas (sorry, Holiday) shopping/giftgiving thing? I wonder because the fact that everyone does it at the same time makes me feel like ultimately it is a meaningless gesture. Everyone gets so many purchased presents from everyone else that they know that I think it's lost all point. I long ago stopped telling people "what I want for Christmas".

Here is my modest proposal: people should get back to enjoying Christmas, or whichever other Solstice-themed religious holiday will stand in. Feast and be merry. If you want to give people presents, give your family and friends gifts in January or February, which is the bleaker, more un-festive part of winter that needs some cheer. And the after-Christmas sales of surplus mean that the shopping will be cheaper. Or you could *gasp* make something special for your loved ones, rather than purchase various goods made in factories in China as a means to symbolize your love and generousity. Of course, some people would be offended that you are not giving them presents specifically ON Christmas, but if so those people obviously aren't that close to you and do not deserve presents anyway.

I would like to put this modest proposal into practice, but something tells me I will give in to the herd mentality, like everyone else.