I guess it's to remind me to be
more human.
Isn't being a dog part of being human?
What if that's the best part of you?
The dog part.
What if you're really just a
two-legged dog?
You need to see somebody.
Stinks in here.
I'd always wanted to do something
big with my life
I just didn't know what.
Anyhow, I figured,
if I was going into the gun trade,
I was going aim high.
Vitaly, stop fucking around.
I want to talk to you.
You read the newspapers, Vit?
Newspaper? It's always the same.
You're right.
Every day there's people shooting
each other.
You know what I do when I see that?
I look to see what guns they're using
and I think to myself, why not my guns?
What, are you opening a gun shop?
Already more of those in than
McDonald's.
Even with all the gangsters around here,
the margins are too low.
You've figured the margins?
Sure.
Forget gang wars.
The real money is in actual wars.
Between countries.
Yuri, what the fuck do you know
about guns?
I know which end I'd rather be on.
I made the first sale.
We're already in business.
Whoa, whoa. We?
I need a partner.
I don't know,
I don't know, Yuri. I don't know.
Vitaly, I've tasted your borscht.
You're no fucking chef.
I can eat in the restaurant for free
and I still don't eat there.
Fuck you.
We're doing nothing with our lives.
I mean, this is shit!
This is shit!
It's true.
But maybe doing nothing's
better than doing this.
I need you.
Brothers in arms.
Brothers in arms.
Sir, may I interest you in the
shoulder-fired SA-7
surface-to-air missiles?
The older Chinese model.
Not so effective against
modern military aircraft. But deadly...
if used against a commercial airliner.
I'm giving them away at 8-50.
In the '80s, and the Cold War was
far from thawed
Most of the deals were
government-to-government.
It was a mostly private club...
...with a lifetime club president.
That's him.
The big shot?
Simeon Weisz, Angola,
Mozambique,
those Exocet missiles
in the Falklands.
He was selling guns before
there was gunpowder.
Be right back.
Mr. Weisz? Mr. Weisz!
It's okay, they're talking.
May I help?
A mutual friend, Eli Kurtzman
from Brighton Beach,
import/export said to contact you.
I have a business proposal
and I thought perhaps we could
discuss it.
I don't think you and I are
in the same business.
You think I just sell guns,
don't you?
I don't. I take sides.
But in the Iran-Iraq war
you sold guns to both sides.
Did you ever consider that
I wanted both sides to lose?
Bullets change governments far
surer than votes.
You're in the wrong place,
my young friend.
This is no place for amateurs.
Motherfucker.
Curious how you always revert to
your native tongue
in moments of extreme anger.
And ecstasy.
Oh God... Oh, God!
You are beautiful.
What's your name again?
The only option for Vitaly and me
was under-the-counter gunrunning.
Beirut, Lebanon - 1984
I got my first break in Lebanon
after the suicide bombing.
But I wasn't the only local kid
making good.
When the United States leaves a war zone...
they generally don't take
their munitions.
It costs more to bring it back
than to buy new stock.
So, we sell by the kilo.
They're secondhand weapons,
but they're still okay.
How many kilos would you like?
Five thousand.
I had a flair for languages...
...but I soon discovered that what
talks best is dollars, dinars...
...drachmas, rubles, rupees, and
pounds-fucking-sterling.
Of course, the U.S. Army got a
piece of the action.
Army salaries were no better then
than they are today.
And some of the brass,
like Lieutenant Colonel Southern...
needed to raise money for their
own private wars.
Good to make your acquaintance.
This is bullshit money,
This is small-fucking-potatoes.
What do you want to do, go more legit?
No, more illegal.
What I would give right now
for cabbage and potatoes.
It's not our fight.
Vit, come on!
Let's go. Come on.
Selling guns is like selling