Three characters from different backgrounds USE each other for very different goals

Rating: 8/10 (29 November 2016)

My first impression of the movie was that Leonardo DiCaprio was not deep enough and that he was just trying to force out a tough version of Indiana Jones.---WRONG! His role as a South African diamond smuggler, Danny Archer, evolves into a very full and complex character with a very important story to be told.
Other first impressions about the expected stereotypical roles of the Western journalist, Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) and the native Sierra Leonean fisherman, Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) turn out to be equally wrong as the movie unfolds and the nature of their roles becomes more apparent.
These three central characters—from totally different backgrounds--meet under unusual circumstances, but they all eventually need and explicitly USE each other to achieve their very different goals.
The story behind the 1990s civil war in Sierra Leon is told here in an enlightening and entertaining way. After seeing the movie, I was prompted to Google more details about the West African location of Sierra Leon and the actual history behind the civil war there. As an interesting side-line, Best Supporting Actor nominee, Djimon Hounsou was born in the nearby country of Benin.