I recently saw the DVD version of Lord of War, written and directed by Andrew Niccol, staring Nicolas Cage. This entire movie is told from the first person meaning it’s narrated from the main character who speaks directly to the audience.

I found this movie humorous, disturbing, and very compelling. When it was over my mind was still contemplating some of the moral issues raised in the film. I've found some instances online where people were some people had an epiphany after seeing this film and it sparked interest in the morality of arms trading etc. I think that speaks very powerfully to the Niccol’s skill to not only be able to write/direct an entertaining and emotional charged film, but also address strong moral questions. This makes me want to spend more time breaking down Lord of War piece by piece.

Normally when movies have such a moral underpinning, the movie loses its dramatic effect and comes off as preachy, uninteresting, and predictable. This movie kept me interested and afterwards I jumped right on the computer to research what other viewers responses were. The user comments at IMDB (Internet Movie Database) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0399295/usercomments?start=0 were very strong and point to the moral questions the story raises. Here are a few comment titles:

“It's worth a recommendation, if only for the fact that it exists in today's play-it-safe cinema marketplace”

“Just Evil Prevails”

“The Truth About Guns & Wars”

"Back then, I didn't sell to Osama Bin Laden. Not because of moral reasons, but because he was always bouncing checks."

“A Surprising Morality Tale”

“This Movie Changed My Life”

Look at the last one, Changed My Life. I hope to write a movie someday powerful enough to have someone say it changed their life. Also this wasn’t just an isolated comment; I went to the user forums at Lions Gate for Lord of War and found them to be absolutely full of moral debates on war and arms trafficking.

http://forums.lgf.com/forumdisplay.php?f=93

What movies have challenged your moral viewpoints and made you want to get into a debate?

I should note that this movie was a financial failure. From a business perspective, It had a production budget of $50 million, which it didn’t earn back in the box office even if you include it’s overseas release.

I couldn’t find a formatted version of screenplay, but here is a link to the dialogue transcript. I found some of the dialogue to be a bit explanatory, but I loved the satirical tone and intellectual observations of the narrator.

http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/l/lord-of-war-script-transcript.html