Lord of War is a bit tricky on that front. It seems to glorify the whole mess of international semi-licit arms trading and the people who do it (Cage's character), but under that what it really demonstrates is a man falling ever deeper into sad loneliness in between mostly hollow successes straddling a moral abyss. He resigns himself, almost through inertia, to continuing his business simply because by the end, he really has nothing else and knows how to do nothing else, trapped in a life now devoid of deeper warmth or meaning.

The movie is bleakly depressing under its mockingly glorified surface shine.