Lord of War (2005) and the lies we tell ourselves

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I had the strange pleasure of seeing Lord of War for a second time last night. At one point, this was my favourite film. It’s been almost a decade since I first saw it, and while it is no longer my favourite film and hasn’t been for some time, I really appreciate one aspect of it that had completely slipped by me the first time.

Lord of War is many things, but it is not subtle. This movie is really only about one thing, and they beat you over the head with it again and again. But they do it in such a way that you, like the teenager I was when I first saw the film, may not even realise what it is.

What is the purpose of having Yuri Orlov narrate over so many of the scenes in the film? Because there is one. Yuri doesn’t fit the profile of an unreliable narrator, because as far as we can tell, the recounting of events is factual. So, what is it?

Early on, our humble Narrator talks about how his personal favourite types of arms deals are Gray, not White (Legal) or Black (Illegal). He says his job is nullifying arms embargoes. In other words, his job is taking Black arms deals and making them Gray.

He talks about Jack, the agent pursuing him, and how every man has his price, but Jack couldn’t be bought—the only thing he cares about is “glory”.

He talks about his brother, and how he doesn’t know, ‘to this day’, what he was running away from. He later comments that he didn’t know what was going on in his head, and maybe that he never knew.

He dismisses his infidelity by saying that he “makes love to [his wife] as if she were the only one.”

There is a thread that connects all of these scenes, which is what the movie is really about, and what the purpose of the narration really is.

Ultimately, it all comes down to a single moment, which is when Yuri says this:

"They say evil prevails when good men fail to act. What they ought to say is, ‘evil prevails’."

It’s quaint and poetic, but let’s take a closer look at the man saying it. Yuri says this after a warlord—sorry, Lord of War—guns down Yuri’s brother after blowing up half an arm’s shipment that Yuri intends to sell to a man who intends to use them to massacre a village of people, including children, only meters away from them.

Yuri comments that the massacre played out exactly how his brother predicted, but that half a dozen other massacres happened in Sierra Leone that week. “You can’t stop them all. In my experience, you can’t stop any of them.”

10 years ago, I really believed that. That no matter whether Yuri tried to stop the massacre or armed the men planning it, it would make no difference. That even if he tried, he’d just end up dead. That Vitali, Yuri’s brother, had lost his life for nothing.

Last night, I saw that scene and that line for what it really was: a lie. A lie that Yuri carefully phrases to excuse himself of culpability; to justify his actions. It’s “not his fight”.

Bullshit.

In the words of another flawed show:

“If nothing we do matters, all that matters is what we do.”

When Yuri makes this exact same argument in an earlier scene, his wife implores him not to be the one who sells the arms even if someone else will take his place. Then Yuri reveals the real reason he does what he does: he’s good at it.

I don’t think there is a scene that demonstrates Yuri Orlov’s true colours better than one which has exactly zero narration. The Lord of War asks Yuri what he wants done with the arms dealer who tried to move in and take his clientele. He asks whether Yuri wants him dead or alive. Yuri doesn’t answer.

The Lord of War takes Yuri’s hand and holds it to the gun, saying they’ll do it together. He tells Yuri, “tell me to stop at any time.” Half a minute passes, and Yuri says nothing. He fires the gun. A second later, Yuri whispers, “stop.”

Yuri’s omnipresent narration is conspicuously absent. Because really, what can he possibly say that justifies this cold-blooded murder?

Does anybody really believe that Yuri wanted to stop that man from dying?

Yuri certainly hopes you do, but it's hard to tell if he believes half the lies he tells himself by the end of the movie.