film review: Blood Diamond

Rating: 8/10 (31 December 2006)

Just in time to rally against all those DeBeers commercials and put fire on the Save Darfur flame  Darfur or whatever African nation is falling apart at the moment  this winter brings us Blood Diamond. This movie is about conflict diamonds  precious jewels whose sale and illegal trafficking funds war in Africa and comes at the cost of many human lives. With plenty of action, a tad of moral and social philosophy, and not surprisingly political commentary, this film is what you might expect from Hollywood when it's trying to show how honest it can be and what "real" issues it can portray. In other words, Blood Diamond is this year's Syriana. But fanaticism, humanitarianism, and hype aside, this is still a very good movie.
It portrays the chaos in Africa much like The Constant Gardener, mixed in with better and more gripping action, and the drama of City of God. Now unlike The Constant Gardener's slow, mysterious pace and conflicted heroes of Justin and Tessa Quayle that take too long to develop, Blood Diamond masterfully interweaves the tales of a father trying to find his family, a diamond smuggler, and a journalist into a fast-paced story. It captures the heart of City of God and the sadness of innocent children's eyes but in a much more streamlined way. Things are not spelled out for the viewer; attraction, danger, and death are realistic and unsaid instead of woven into clichéd dialogue. And finally, unlike Syriana, there aren't too many characters and you actually care about them as they go through the war zone of Sierra Leone in 1999.
Two big stars headline the show in Jennifer Connelly and Leonard DiCaprio, but both work magic in their roles. Largely unknown Djimon Hounsou, who radiates the passion and energy of a just and honest family man in dynamic times of crisis, rounds out the main characters. Connelly never fails to impress and does well with her smaller but effective role while DiCaprio takes on a much more challenging character (along the lines of The Gangs of New York's Amsterdam Vallon and The Aviator's Howard Hughes). He proves that he isn't Scorsese's second (or new) DeNiro but can still make the screen sizzle on his own. The diamond-smuggling Danny Archer isn't just a gun totting, careless opportunist. He has a past, a philosophy that goes beyond "screw everything," and he is not invincible. Nothing that is revealed about his character is left to be implausible or unexplained, while still retaining depth and unpredictability. DiCaprio compliments his costars very well and masterfully jumps between the different roles Archer is forced to take on. As smoothly as a flick of a light switch, he goes from saving a child to ruthlessly fighting the child's father.
This film does lapse into a bit of predictable cinematography with scenes of the sunset and convoys of cars that feel lifted from elsewhere but is otherwise more raw and original than one might expect. Everything from DiCaprio's accent (South African, not British) to the minimal portrayal of the diamond industry itself indicates that this is not a run-of-the-mill political thriller that tells you what to think or how wrong something is. Like a good book, or any good story for that matter, it shows rather than tells, it feels rather than kisses and sleeps around, and it breathes and bleeds rather than do fancy cut scenes for suspense. In the end, the viewer is more open to making up his or her mind as to what he would do in these circumstances and times. The movie needs no tagline but can be summarized by one motif and acronym: TIA. "This Is Africa"