MadMode

Lord of War (2005) came to the top of my Netflix queue this week; it has been on my various to-do lists since February 2008 when my brother-in-law recommended it to me during my trip to New York. It's not the feel-good-movie-of-the-year, but it's got some meaty food for thought:

The film was officially endorsed by the human rights group Amnesty International for highlighting the arms trafficking by the international arms industry.

Lord of War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DISCUSSION TOPICS

- Weapons trading, civil wars, guerilla warfare, cold wars, the end of the Cold War, redistribution of wealth, the CIA, peace, Africa, AIDS, politics, Pacifism, chaos and anarchy, greed, immigration, the Russian mafia, conflict diamonds, massacres, prostitution, war, bureaucracy, arms embargoes, drug abuse and addiction.

MESSAGE

- Greed and power corrupt. Violence is in our nature.

Lord of War [2005] [R] - 7.8.10 Kids in Mind

Nicolas Cage once again plays the amoral main character and for most of the movie, we see through his rationalizations and we can see what's coming to him. We're right there with his wife when she says that while she failed at a lot of things, she'll never go so low as he has.

But then-zing!-we learn that we, as U.S. citizens, are party to what he does, as it's a byproduct of U.S. foreign policy.

And it's not just the U.S.:

A brief postscript notes that, while private arms dealers do conduct a lot of business, the five largest arms exporters – the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, and China – are also the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

Lord of War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If that's not bad enough, there's more to see. Inside Job, called An extraordinary documentary about influence and government by Lawrence Lessig, is now playing in KC.