Lord of War (2005) on Netflix
Yuri Orlov, a restaurant employee in Brighton Beach, sees a gunfight among the Russian mafia and starts selling arms with his younger brother Vitaly. Interpol agent Jack Valentine pursues him.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.6/10362,863 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes62%
Trailer
Plot summary
The Orlov family left the Soviet Union by taking Jewish identities and settled in Brighton Beach, where Yuri works in a restaurant. A gunfight among the neighborhood's Russian mafia turns his mind to selling weapons, and a contact at his father's synagogue supplies him with an Uzi for his first sale. Yuri sees the demand for weapons as constant, like the demand for restaurant food. He persuades his reluctant younger brother Vitaly to become his partner. The Lebanese Civil War, after the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings, brings the brothers their big break, and Yuri's business grows. Interpol agent Jack Valentine pursues him, and Yuri cannot bribe or scare Valentine off.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Lord of War (2005)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Andrew Niccol, a New Zealand screenwriter, wrote the original script, and a Creative Artists Agency agent passed it to French producer Philippe Rousselet in 2004 as "a Goodfellas in the world of arms dealing". Rousselet could find no American studio to take it on: it was pitched right before the Iraq War began.
- While filming in the Czech Republic, director Andrew Niccol found it was cheaper to buy real firearms than props, so he bought 3,000 Kalashnikovs. Most were sold back at a loss, and some were sawn in half to remove them from circulation.
- One scene needed a line of 50 T-72 tanks, lent by a source who wanted them back by December because they were being sold to Libya. NATO had to be told about the tanks, as satellite imagery suggested a weapons build up in the country.
- A sequence showing Yuri co-piloting an Antonov An-12 transport plane used a plane provided by an arms dealer, one that was actively being used for transporting firearms during the time of production.
- Forbes, The Independent and The New York Times name the Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout as a source for Yuri Orlov. Both men held the nickname "Merchant of Death", sold weapons to both sides of the same conflict, and traveled with multiple passports.
- The budget was low enough that many scenes were built from only basic elements: one consisted entirely of 10,000 clay bricks and an extra in North African garb.
