Burton Speaks

Well, this is my blog and I can do whatever the hell I want. So now I review the occasional movie, too, except they may not always be new movies.

So I saw Lord of War tonight, based in no small part on an article I read in The New Yorker. What a fantastic film. I left feeling like humanity was shit, and so was I. Not a lot of films can do that me.

The plot is available anywhere, so I'm not going to bother typing my own summary. But this film raises all sorts of questions we each need to answer. Questions like: Is not stopping someone else from committing an atrocity an atrocity in and of itself? Can I do something wrong and be okay with it because if I don't do it, someone else will? Finally, what is the nature of humanity?

This film shows us at our worst. That parts of this world live, fight, and die in such animalistic conditions - and here in America we can watch it and be entertained by it on the silver screen. There are places in this world where people are fighting and dying to get the the top of a hill that's meaningless... it's only relative power in which to oppress those around you. Is it worldwide power? Is it lasting power? Of course not. As I was driving home afterwards I looked around at the civilization we've built up here and I wonder if it's not just a shiny veneer propped up by an animalistic society that hides underneath the surface, hoping we'll imagine we're better than we really are.

In any event, it's a great film. The acting is solid (though Nicolas Cage looks the same age despite 20 years of film progression), the writing is great, the visual imagery is incredible, the writing is terrific, and the direction is... well, I'm out of adjectives that describe "really fantastically good".

Final word: See this movie even if it means you can't afford to eat for a week. It's worth it.