Blood Diamond (2006)

Edward Zwick's best film

Wow, after seeing this I just had to recommend it to everybody. The story is riveting and the acting is superb.(especially Djimon Hounsou) This is one of my favorite movies. I highly encourage everyone to buy it, or at least watch it. December 29, 2008

Diamonds Are Forever Blemished

"In America, it's bling bling. But out here, it's bling bang."

So says diamond hound Danny Archer, summing up in two sentences the vastly differing attitudes between American capitalism and third-world uprising in director Edward Zwick's (The Last Samurai) five-time Academy Award-nominated composition on greed, anarchy and its resulting desolation. "Blood Diamond" is a violently epic film, one that takes a cold hard look at the diamond trade and unveils the heinous business that is behind the acquisition of these dazzling coveted stones.

Solomon Vandy (Hounsou) is a humble fisherman of the Mende tribe in Sierra Leone who has high hopes for his son Dia to become a doctor. When his home village of Shenge is pillaged by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), he is taken prisoner and forced to work in the diamond fields to fund the radical group's arsenal. While panning in a riverbed, Solomon unearths a rare pink diamond of grand proportion and rather than surrender it to the despicable Captain Poison (Harewood), he conceals it and later buries it in an unmarked location.

Danny Archer (DiCaprio), another in a long line of profiteers, is a covert agent for Van de Kaap Diamond Company who acquires and smuggles diamonds past Liberian officials. When a smuggling attempt fails and Archer is subsequently arrested, Van de Kaap's bigwigs wash their hands of him. Not wanting to blow their cover for the sake of the continual lining of their pockets, they leave Danny to fend for himself in a country ravaged by war. While detained in a prison in Freetown, he overhears Captain Poison in another cell hiss at Solomon about the location of the stone. Knowing that this diamond will save his hide with Col. Coetzee (Vosloo) - a mercenary responsible for the war that rages on - and provide a one-way ticket out of the country, Danny arranges for Solomon to be released and offers to find his family in exchange for information regarding the location of the stone.

Enter Maddy Bowen (Connelly), a tenacious and attractive journalist who at first utilizes her physical charisma to charm the facts out of Danny, coming off as just another correspondent hungry for a big story. Despite being in ruthless pursuit of the facts, Maddy is a realist - she knows all too well that her presence does little to change things, her candid and emotionally harrowing articles ineffectual in the face of turmoil. Her burning desire to expose the dirt beneath the diamond trade's pristine fingernails becomes all too clear when she reprimands Danny for capitalizing on Solomon's desperation, in turn deciding to assist Solomon in the search for his now vagrant family.

The film's screenplay from Charles Leavitt (K-PAX) is smart, cynical and emotionally earnest and bases much of its scripted chaos on factual events that Leavitt heavily researched. Wanting to portray the conflict diamond industry as truthfully as possible, Leavitt was well aware that some of what he shared would greatly offend companies in that industry and possibly instigate nasty lawsuits, namely from De Beers (who does a majority of their mining in South Africa as well as Botswana, Namibia and Canada).

Hounsou (nominated for Best Supporting Actor) is exceptional as Solomon Vandy, a man who wants nothing more than to provide well for his family. The desperation to find them and the burning rage against those who ravaged their once happy life are translated beautifully through Hounsou's emphatic eyes and tremulous mouth.

Connelly proves once again that she is a formidable actress as Maddy, her immense green eyes emoting much of the conviction in her dialogue.

DiCaprio (nominated for Best Actor) deftly executes a South African accent as well as some indisputably supreme acting skills. As Danny, he portrays a man who has known nothing but violence since his childhood and as a result loosely carries his conscience in his pocket. His self-imposed teaming with Solomon proves to be the morality check he needs, the ruthless pursuit of the diamond forcing him to look directly into the face of a nation ravaged by disorder and demoralization, something which he has turned the other cheek to so many times in the past.

In the film's closing scenes, Leavitt's screenplay states that despite the signing of the Kimberley Process (a process introduced by United Nations resolution 55/56 that is designed to certify the origin of rough diamonds from sources which are free of conflict) in 2003 that "illegal diamonds are still finding their way to market" and that "it is up to the consumer to insist that a diamond is conflict-free". For any women that may view the film and that read this particular caption, it will have them eyeing some of their more prized pieces of jewelry with a newfound - albeit morbid - curiosity.

Bottom line: "Blood Diamond" is an eye-opening examination of a dirty business of which few are aware and it is clear from the outcome that it will take more than a simple governmental resolution to stop the murder and sabotage that a small, flashy piece of carbon has managed to create.

December 1, 2008

Engrossing Movie

I absolutely love this movie and it battles a topic that is not talked about much, and that is the diamond trade in Africa where people get killed and maimed over these diamonds (hence the term blood diamond). This movie is fairly accurate in its portrayl of Africa and it will bring you to tears. It's an emotionally moving film that everyone must see. It is a nice added addition to any DVD collection. November 18, 2008

Not very entertaining though enlightening...

This movie was very well put together for what it is. It is almost a docudrama about present day Africa, exploitation of Africans by each other as much as anyone, and the diamond trade.

I have two problems with the movie. First, it was not entertaining to me. It was a too violent depiction of real life and, overall, it did not reflect much hope. Second, I found Leonardo's character's eventual compassion too little and too late to believe.

This movie was highly recommended to me by several people. I guess it just is not my cup of tea. November 10, 2008

Blood Diamond

I really love this movie. I'm South AFrican and I think Leonarda Di Caprio does a stellar job in his role and I enjoyed the whole story. October 26, 2008

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