Blood Diamond: Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, and Jennifer Connelly
"Don't ever let go, Rose!" Oh god... this movie can't be good; Leonardo DiCaprio is in it.Now that I've addressed the first thoughts of every Titanic-hating man who has seen the previews for this movie, here's a pleasant surprise-- it doesn't suck. A connection of several different characters and their experiences, Blood Diamond takes place in Africa during the violent diamond smuggling of the 1990's, just after apartheid has been removed. It has a good plot, great drama and character development, and powerful imagery as well.
The movie beings with a local African villager, Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), walking down a dirt road with his son, Dia (Kagiso Kuypers). A normal trip home from school quickly becomes a tragedy when a truckload of rebel soldiers arrive and begin slaughtering everyone in the village. Women and children are defenseless against the barrage of automatic weaponry, and to make matters worse, half of the rebels doing the killing are young boys around the age of ten. The images of children killing innocent civilians is bad enough when it appears to be an isolated incident; this is a recurring theme throughout the movie, however. Solomon's wife and children manage to escape, but he and his oldest boy Dia are captured by the rebels. Solomon is sent to work in the diamond mines, and Dia is forced to join a training program (read: brainwashing) so as to make him a "soldier of the rebellion".
The scenes depicting this training of Dia (as well as a group of other young boys) are pretty hardcore, to say the least. For instance, an African civilian is placed against a wall in front of Dia, who is wearing a blind fold. The rebels give Dia an AK-47 and force him to pull the trigger, then remove the blind fold and cheer him on. Dia watches the man bleed to death, stricken with horror as he realizes what he has just done.
Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Archer, is an ex-soldier turned diamond smuggler who meets Solomon when he finds out that Solomon has discovered and hidden an extremely valuable diamond during his time working in the mines. At first reluctant, Solomon agrees to give Archer the diamond if he will help him find his family, particularly his son Dia. DiCaprio has a great performance in this movie, he pulls off the South African accent well and is surprisingly convincing as a military-hardened badass smuggler. He's not afraid to get his hands dirty, but he's also extremely cautious of the dangerous African territory that he's grown up in. Archer plays his cards like he just wants to get out of Africa, no matter the cost, but when he meets Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), a journalist looking to exploit the bloody diamond trade, he has a gradual but convincing change in heart.
Blood Diamond's imagery is simply astounding. I've always heard about the poverty in Africa, but I never realized that it was
that bad. There are so many people in such small spaces, and many of them are just sitting around in the heat, often using broken down cars as shelter. The hardship is overwhelming. Blood Diamond also has some great action scenes-- all out rebel raids on entire cities explode with gunfire, RPG's, and other explosives.
The movie ends in The United States and it wraps up pretty quick, but that didn't bother me much since the primary role of this movie was to show the experiences of a few people while in Africa during the blood diamond trades. Overall, I'd say that this is a solid B+ or maybe even an A-, and it's definitely recommended. A powerful movie with some amazing drama, Blood Diamond is definitely worth your money.
