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     Nicholas Cage stars in the movie Lord of War as Yuri Orlov, an international arm trader. The story is told through voice over. Orlov describes how he started his selling and guides us through his journey as it flourished from simple vend in America to a more dangerous and risqué international affair especially in Africa and his pursue by an Interpol agent Jack Valentine played by actor Ethan Hawk who was determined to get Yuri locked. This thriller is based on actual events and is a moving and intense story of a man whose business had made him a millionaire had also cost him the lost of his family and the closest people to him in life. Because of the blood-spattered commerce he chose to do and would not stop doing, he was destined to a life of hazard and solitude.

            Yuri Orlov moved to the United States with his parents and younger brother Vitali Orlov played by Jared Leto. The family came from Ukraine escaping the Soviets and settled in little Odessa located in New York. The story goes back from 1982 when Yuri decided to make a business that he said would supply the people with what they will always need making a comparison with his parents restaurants that provided everyone something they will not stop longing for. He started the business with his brother and worked his way up to becoming as he himself stated it the “world’s leading merchant of death”. He sells for the profit and because he is good at it. He does not discriminate between whom he sells his guns to, any country, any leaders, from sea to shining sea. You need a gun? Call Yuri, he got it. As he puts it in his own words, “I sell to leftists, and rightists. I sell to pacifists, but they’re not the most regular customers.”  He closes his eyes on the consequences of the weapons he sells: it is not his battle. Nothing could stop him and besides he believes that even if he does stop someone else would take over so it did not matter.

            Director and screenwriter Andrew Niccol gave his public a dazzling true crime story a la GoodFellas style by Martin Scorcese (1992), a story were death instead of being an unfortunate side effect, as it is shown in the typical illegal drug selling movie, it is the main attraction. The arms business does not call for anything but the lost of lives either it be innocents or people who truly deserve it. It also reminds us of scarface (1983) as it gives a mort updated and gun related version of the drug dealer dictum “never get high with your own merchandise”. Yuri gives us “the first and most important rule of gun running: Never get shot with your own merchandise”.

            The opening credits of the movie shows a bullet as it is going from its many stages of manufacture and as it makes its way from a Soviet factory through the head of an African child all shown from the bullet’s perspective itself making this sequence a ingenious and astonishing one. The bullet is fired from the AK-47, an arm that had a whole scene dedicated to it as Yuri was explaining the assets and beauty of the soviet model of 1947 Avtomat Kalashnikov: the real “weapon of mass destruction.” It is an elegant gun that all fighters love.

         Near the end of the movie, when Valentine after a long pursuit finally got solid proofs on the illegal traffic of Yuri that could lock him down for the longest time, he was shocked to learn from Yuri himself that the same reason why Valentine thinks he will be arrested was the same reason why he will be released. Yuri goes on explaining him that despite the fact that Valentine perceives him as evil, he is unfortunately for valentines a necessary evil for the simple fact that the biggest arm dealer in the world, the president of the United States, needs a freelancer like Yuri to supply forces that he cannot be seen supplying. The film ends proclaiming the five permanent member of the UN Security Council: U.S, U.K, Russia, France and China were the world’s leading arm suppliers giving the outstanding morality of the movie and support Yuri’s affirmation to Valentine. It would be totally duplicitous to condemn illegal gunrunners such as Yuri. Through Yuri’s voice over this scene closed up with Yuri’s quote: “They say, Evil prevails when good men fail to act. What they ought to say is, Evil prevails.” Which I thought summed it up nicely.

            Nothing is perfect, and as many other great pieces, this film of course has its own flaws. For example the tone seemed inconsistent. It would jump from moments of black comedy to unsubtle Oliver Stone like preaching. Certain people found the pacing uneven as well and some subplots, such as the one with the “wife doesn’t know what he’s doing for a living”, with no particular aim.

            Lord of war is a movie worth seeing for the fact that it raises many important issues, it has fascinating info-bytes and a significant viewpoint. It actually has something to say unlike many other Hollywood movies that are made today. The movie’s performances were very impressive as well. What I loved the most about the movie was its ending which I thought was unique. Yuri’s life or career did not end with the movie. He has lost his brother, his wife and son left him, his parents dishonored him and yet the story ended with him going for another day in business. Guns are to be sold, more life are to be taken away, people needs to kill, there is no resting at the office.

Work Cited

 http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/ReviewComplete.asp?FID=10348

 http://www.samoviemag.co.za/reviews/lordofwar.html

 http://www.filmthreat.com/index.php?section=reviews&Id=7985

It is not uncommon to hear about a rock star being addicted to drugs. I mean IF there is some of them that are not, I’m sure I could count them on my fingers. I think they all have tried it at least once. I landed on a thirty seconds running video of an absolutely drunk Gerard Way the lead singer of my chemical romance. Sure many drink, many get wasted, everyone has done it right or maybe I ought to say almost everyone. But in any case they are the one being exposed because they are so “well-known”. But if you are “well-known would it not be wiser to stay away from the things that may put you in horrible situations in the eyes of the public, especially fans? It’s not even just rock stars; Ray Charles got his own little story with the use of heroin. It seems like fame comes along with bad addiction, it’s like their way of dealing with the stress, the pressure and everything else. A sip would make them forget for a while but seriously at what cost?

One rock star that went out of control and he is far from being the only one was Nikki Sixx. Besides music, his life revolved into alcohol and order drugs mostly heroin. He often stated that the way he is using is body was in comparison to a chemistry set. He would mix excessive amount of drugs on a regular basis to search for new levels of “high”. The worst happened on the night of December 23^rd 1987, when Sixx was declared dead for two minutes after an heroine overdose. He was revived thanks to the paramedics that gave him two shots of adrenaline in his heart.  That was not the only incident, a year earlier, Valentine’s Day 1986 he had overdosed in London. After a concert, he grabbed a taxi with Andy McCoy who took him in some neighborhood to get shots of heroin. He was already drunk at that time and went for a potent street drug that crashed him on the spot. The drug dealer tried to bring the life out of him using a bat and dumped it into a nearby dumpster. Who wants a dead rock star laying around? Sure those episodes of his life gave him inspiration for big hits such as “kickstart my heart”, “valentine’s in London, found me in the trash” or “dancing on Glass”.

But the question I always ask myself is: was it worth it? I surely have absolutely no idea what is happening on their life, how bad is it or what they are trying to escape from but still I can’t seem to figure why drug is an option. I tried, I just can’t. You should not even think for a split second to do something that messes up your life to such high degree. I don’t understand why we as people put ourselves to pain sometimes like it could not have been avoided. It’s not just drugs; it is scary how much people who put their life through to reach a certain pleasure. If you get an answer to that thing about human nature please don’t keep it to yourself, I want to know…like seriously!

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The universe we live in is full of purpose; our life is meaningful because there is a permanent order and stability to life and virtue we should look up. The existentialist view of order is not order at all if it can change according to an individual’s choice. From their belief that everyone is free to make their own choices despite the consequences of others they try to say that there can be order in the world. But imagine a world where each and everyone are leaving by their own sets of rules. There is no common moral by which one would have to live; everything I do is good everything you do is good. Doesn’t that sound more like a catastrophic world, a world out of country with individuals having their own little ideas about morality and how they act on it? Apparently they do not believe that there is stable order in the world. In the existentialists’ world, there is no place for fate, no higher power. We are living and that’s that. We just happened to be so now it is up for each of us to create our purpose in life. Existence precedes essence.

What if we step out of the existentialists view? Let them wonder in their little world which they think gives the universe order and purpose, the world which I would never understand I swear. Let’s approach the fact that there actually is order in the universe, that we have been created by a higher power and that our life is pre-determined. Essence precedes existence. Our life has a purpose that is given to us by God. We did not just happened to be born and then all of a second are able to decide whatever we want from life. We are able to make some choices but whatever happens to us was meant to. Our life is described by fate, we are destined to live a certain way, to have a certain things. Though the way we live our life today determines what our life will be tomorrow, how we live our life today in order to live a tomorrow based on our today was most likely how it was meant for us to live. And that is for no other reason but because everything is meant to be and happens for a reason. We are not accidentally born, we have been created by the Architect of the Universe whom as given us our purpose in life. Our life has meaning and is destined to something. Though chances sometimes occur (nothing is ever perfect) most of what we see, do, or feel do not occur by accident.

I find the existentialist point of view so…radical.

Martin Luther King presented the “I have a dream” speech to bring Blacks and Whites together, to let people know that we were all equal and we should all have the same rights. Now we have other major problems, it’s not like that there’s not any confrontation between Blacks and Whites, but this is just like a déjà vu. Instead of the Blacks being the victims, immigrants are. Like Martin Luther King, I have a dream on this issue and this how it goes.

            America the land of the free is a melting pot. It is made of different groups of people. Through the course of the years, immigrants came to the U.S. from all over the world seeking for a better life which would entail religion, politics, housing, education or fleeing from an oppressive country.

            Prejudice, which is an opinion or judgment formed without due examination, still exist in our country but in different ways and depending of which group. Each group of immigrants experienced many forms of prejudice. Yes, from the early years until today, it hasn’t changed.

            Before, the Jewish were forced to change their names and renounced to their religion in order to gain employment and housing. What a humiliation!

But the Jewish weren’t the only one. The Asians, the French, the Dutch were just a few of them.

            Today the prejudices are different for different reasons and yet some how the same. A great math teacher, well known in her town and neighborhood for her degree but due to insecurity in her country had no choice but to come to the United States. Unfortunately when she came the only and best job she could get was to work at fast food restaurant, cleaning dishes, and earning minimum payment due to her inability to speak English. This also is a humiliation because I know I’ll be feeling ashamed and humiliated if this was me. There are also other similar cases like immigrants from the Middle East who are taken for terrorists and all they want are security and peace in a new country.

            Immigrants all experienced shame, fear, loneliness, rejection, prejudice, humiliation and much more. The worst thing is those immigrants that have assimilated into the American Society are those showing prejudice to the new immigrants (new comers). The irony is we all immigrants and people tend to forget about that.  

            Surely but slowly these barriers of wrongdoing are falling away. In some government places there are some interpreters for those who do not speak English. Immigrants are also getting into politics and government positions and changes are being made gradually. There are also laws being passed to protect the rights of the immigrants.

            I have a dream that the old immigrants – I mean all Americans in general, that they consider themselves as immigrants or not – and the new immigrants will welcome the new future immigrants wherever they’re from with open arms. I have a dream that all immigrants will get the respect they deserved and will not be humiliated/disrespected for being who they are.

            Like I said earlier America is a melting pot, immigrants from all over the world contributed to the birth of this nation. Without them there wouldn’t be any America. The immigrants now are part of the next generation of this country. Any negative effects on them will affect part of the generations to come. America is known to be the land of the free, let us give this freedom to those immigrants who left their country just to come here to find peace and let us share with them the American Dream.

“He sells gun…And he’s making a killing”

Lord of war is a thriller based on actual events and is a story told in flashback by an arm dealer himself Yuri Orlov. The movie starts with Yuri played by Nicholas Cage standing in a sea of spent shell casing. The story is told through voice over by Yuri who explaining how he became an arm dealer. It was an exciting job which he would not give up on despite the risks for the sole reason that he was good at it.

            Yuri begins narrating his story from 1982. His family moved to the states from Ukraine while he was still a little boy with his younger brother Vitali. They pretended to be Jewish to escape the soviets. His parents restaurant as he seen it was a way of providing what is necessary to people. Everyone would need to eat, it is a necessity. So, after he witnesses a Russian mobster killing two guys he analyzed the idea of providing something necessary to the people. He found something that everyone needs, a necessity just like his parents restaurant: gun selling. He partners up with his brother Vitali whom was not to sure about such idea and begins a local arm selling which will shortly be flourished into an international gun trading.

            During an arm convention he tries talking an international arm trader Simeon Weisz into being is partner. But Weisz refuses considering Yuri as an amateur in the business. Not ready to back down yet, Yuri started his business alone with his brother. He had multiple identities, a passport for every country he sells gun to. He sells gun to everyone everywhere as he himself stated it: “I sell to leftists and rightists. I sell to pacifists, but they’re not the most regular customers.

            He has put weapons in the hands of the poorest people in the planet giving them mean to kill themselves. Many times his brother had pointed out that what he does has caused many innocent lives to peril, but he would simply reply that this was not their battle. His job is to give the people what they wanted, and what they wanted were guns, all kinds of gun.

            One of the persons he dealt with was a Bolivian drug lord who paid him in cocaine. He had no choice but to accept after the Bolivian guy had shot him. Yuri and his Vitali started ding cocaine but vitali got addicted and had to be checked in a rehabilitation center. Yuri was alone in the business.

            Later on, he started selling drugs to the West African dictator of Liberia André Baptiste whose character was based on Charles Taylor, Africa’s once most prominent warlord elected in the 1990’s during the first civil war in Liberia. André Baptiste paid him in blood diamond and proclaimed Yuri as the Lord of War. When Yuri pointed out that it was Warlord, he automatically replied that he preferred it his way.

            During his trading business Yuri was being followed by Jack Valentine who was trying to get proofs to getting him arrested. When finally he got him with evidence that Yuri was guilty, there’s nothing he could do to lock Yuri down. As Yuri told him, what he was doing was a necessary good and that while the president of the United States was the biggest gun dealer in the world, he would always need a free lancer like Yuri to not have his fingerprints on such embarrassing job. Valentine was shocked and against his will had to free one of the guy’s that where the reason why evil was running the world. Yuri himself recognized it for that he add on his voiceover: “they say that evil prevails when good man fails to act, what they ought to say is that evil prevails”. Valentine did act for the sake of good but while he did everything that was in his power, the bad man still survived.

            Yuri said that he has not kill anyone, and try to defend himself in the movie by saying that he has not done anything wrong but he has hurt his parents, his wife and son and whether he admitted or not, he killed his brother. Vitali was finally settling down, going low on the drugs, having a long term relationship and was thinking about opening his own restaurant when Yuri with his evil mind talked him into following him. And that’s when the poor guy got shot.

            During the movie, Yuri has sold gone and sure made a killing. So many people have been killed by his gun and he has made himself a millionaire, seduced the woman of his dream with this money. But he did not know how to stop, the business was all he could think about he rather lost his family than stop.

This is a story that had a great impact on my life. I hope it makes you think about your own as you are reading it. I took a lot of time to write it and make this a good one. Enjoy!

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I am taking a course that requires me to develop my listening abilities, I have to try in distinct the patterns in a specific noise or sound. I want to be a great musician someday, I know you might say I am too old for that kind of initiation, but oh well. If it can’t happen at least I will have a fine earring and know some useful things about music. Music requires good ear training and listenning skills so meanwhile this is my attempt in careful listening which I have done three times in a row.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                I am sitting at one of the school’s cafeteria. It is a rather busy Sunday afternoon. Many sounds are mixed together creating an amazing brouhaha. I try to pay closed attention to distinct the different noises. A worker just passed by me pushing a plate rack full of plates. The rollers under the rack make a rough and blunt sound as they go over the floor. Adding to that rumbling sound is the loud noise of the plates splashing one over another as the person pushed the cart. It made a sharp clinging sound that is annoying to the ears. I can also hear some noises in the kitchen. At different intermittent the prickly sound of forks, knives and spoons were heard as well as the sharp noise of plates falling over other plates. And of course there is also the fuzzy sound of the students talking to each other. A random piercing laugh was heard at different alternation.
Today, I am outside of my house lying down on the grass. I can hear the sweet sound of the bird singing, a harmony that could bring you to wonderland. Their melody makes it feel like it is spring already. The wind is blowing tenderly; its sound is like music to my ear. Far away I hear the piercing sound of an ambulance approaching. It started out small and was getting sharper and sharper. The increasing sound started to decrease as the ambulance was moving away from my sight.
At this moment, I am seating at the bus stop, waiting. It is an urban area and as one might expect, the sounds here are countless. A car just honked at a driver that did not go fast enough when the green light appeared. It was an impatient and long honking. The sound split the air with a coarse and terrible noise. As cars were zooming one after another I could hear the blunted sound of their motors. The bus came and as it stops, a prickly sound upset my ears. The motor was rolling loud.