I actually had to deal with real arms dealers to get the film made, to get all [the] guns needed for the movie. When a guy said 'I can deliver you 50 tanks' — one private guy who owned 50 tanks in the Czech republic — and 'I'll get them there on Tuesday at 9 a.m.,' sure enough, there they are all [were] perfectly lined up. |
I can't convince anyone it isn't CGI, ... Actually, I went to the Czech Republic and found a guy who owns, privately, 100 Russian T-72 tanks. It was no problem to lend them to me, but he needed them back to sell to Libya. I also had to inform NATO we were filming there. Someone in the Pentagon could have been looking at satellite images and noticed an arms buildup. |
I can't go into a film if I don't think it has some sort of timelessness to it, |
I needed the devil to be charming, ... and there's no more charming a devil than Nic. Something about him makes an arms dealer likable. He was drawn to the material and took a big pay cut to do it. |
I wouldn't make a very good arms dealer. |
In a way, my film is a how-to about becoming an arms dealer, |
In a way, my film is a how-to about becoming an arms dealer, ... During the making of it, I needed guns in the Czech Republic, and it was cheaper to use real guns than replicas. I bought 3,000 Kalashnikovs and then sold them back at a loss. I wouldn't make a very good arms dealer. |
It made hard-core people harder core, ... Ultimately it had a good effect because it made such nonsense of so many views about guns. |
It's so startling to know that the permanent members of the Security Council of the United Nations are the biggest arms dealers in the world, so they are really the |
Nine out of 10 war victims die from a gun. |
Normally what you do is that you start with three tanks and you would use replication and you computer generate the other tanks, ... But here, they were so available I could use real tanks. It was cheaper to get real tanks in the Czech Republic than to make the fake ones that I would normally use computer generated imagery to do. In fact, we had to call NATO and warn them about that scene, because it looked like a weapons build-up in the Czech Republic. |
Some people think 'Lord of War' is a political film, |
Some people think 'Lord of War' is a political film, ... I think it's a truthful film, and the truth is political. The U.S. is by far the biggest exporter of arms in the world. It was true during the Clinton administration, and it's true during the Bush administration. It's bipartisan. |
The U.S. is by far the biggest exporter of arms in the world. It was true during the Clinton administration, and it's true during the Bush administration. It's bipartisan. |
The Wild West mentality is still strong in America, ... especially if you go to a place like Texas, where it's alive and well, or maybe unwell: 'No one's taking away our guns.' In New Zealand, no one has a handgun, and they aren't saying, 'Gee, I wish I had one.' I hope the United States takes note that the murder rate is lower where gun availability is lower. It seems obvious to me. |