Human beings have much to answer for!

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2007)

The horror of this wonderful movie leaves one speechless; it is hard to comment on a movie such as Blood Diamond because the awful truth of our miserable existence comes flooding back rendering an intelligent response almost impossible.
I know political comments about movies must be framed extremely carefully but what I saw several days ago makes me want to explore ideas that probably should be left for a bar or BBQ. How do you deal with boy soldiers shooting prisoners blindfolded or hacking off the hands of people on the other side from the adults that use these boy-soldiers until they are used up or dead? Of course, you enter the theater knowing the outline of the story but then you must face the movie-facts of the real story that can be seen at night on the evening news--if your news will deal with it.
Like one of the African characters famously says in the movie, "Its a good thing we don't have oil" and doesn't that comment pierce the heart of the matter--their raw materials and western greed.
The cast was uniformly excellent. Connelly was perfect as the correspondent who knows the horror but also knows the hurdles in trying to get the story out to an ambivalent western world. DiCaprio plays the best role of his career to date. I find it laughable when people say an actor failed to maintain an accent through the entire movie. He went into and out of a white southern African accent; I don't care, it is enough that he tried, that it wasn't totally American and that his portrayal of a jaded diamond trader was a pleasure to watch.
And last, the brilliant acting of Hounsou whose strength through the horror of his reality in Sierra Leone deserves the Academy for which he is nominated. He is a superb actor and I am sorry that he is offered roles of African men caught in this seemingly never ending story of African reactions to western greed.
Make an effort to see such a great contemporary tale--you will not be sorry.