Cert 15
86 mins
BBFC advice: Infrequent strong language
In 2008, a man, described as a major international arms dealer was captured by American officers after a sting operation in Thailand.
But Tony Gerber and Maxim Pozdorovkin's film suggests that the truth about Viktor Bout may not have been all that it seemed.
I watched The Notorious Mr Bout on a plane which was returning us from a weekend's golf in La Manga. Documentaries are the best type of films to watch on a flight because they rarely show violence or nudity and so don;t give any nasty surprises to crane-necked fellow passengers.
I digress. The Notorious Mr Bout tracks the history of a man who the Americans believed threatened security across the world.
This movie seeks to make Bout out to be no more than a fleet-of-foot businessman who hired out planes to whoever wanted them to transport whatever they wished.
His entrepreneurial spirit took hold as a young man when communism collapsed in his native Russia.
Bout's ability to scent out the greatest opportunities took him across Europe, the Middle East and then into Africa.
Money was everything and even a film which seeks to exonerate him, shows him to be a man with little conscience.
The movie includes contributions from Bout, his family and his closest associates as well as his detractors.
It also includes much contemporary footage because Bout was a lover of home movies.
The Notorious Mr Bout is an interesting chronicle but I kept having the sense that I was only being shown half a story.
Was Bout really as naive as his supporters suggest? I have serious doubts that a man who had built up a business empire across the globe could possibly have been.
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 5.5/10