One of the best of 2006.

Rating: 9/10 (8 January 2008)

A completely exhilarating experience. It's a wild ride in a foreign land that grabs you in it's opening sequence and never let's go. The story is simple. Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) is a man living in 1999 war-torn Sierra Leone trying to make an honest living and raise his son to be a doctor when rebels invade his village and force him to work in the mines trying to discover diamonds for the illegal diamond trade with companies across the globe. Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a smuggler who has lived his entire life in Africa and makes his living by taking the diamonds out of Sierra Leone and bringing them to the people that can get them out for retail sale. Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) is an American journalist doing a story about Leone and its civil war over the blood diamonds.
Through a series of events, coincidence and propositions Solomon finds a large diamond, hides it and agrees to show Danny where it is with the promise of being reunited with his family. In order to get to his family, Danny needs to provide Maddy with information regarding the conflict diamonds and who is involved in trading them. So all three of them embark on the same journey with very different motivations. Solomon wants nothing more than to be reunited with his family. Danny wants to get the diamond so that he can make enough money to finally get out of Africa. And Maddy wants her story and to do whatever she can to help the innocent people of this war-torn country. What follows is an extraordinary adventure that contains a beautiful exploration of African culture, an in-depth study of the lives of those affected by conflict diamonds and some of the most exciting action sequences of all time.
Though the film may appear to be too preachy at times, I think it avoided the more-traveled route of chastising America for two hours and instead presented the real situation of what happened (and is still happening) in areas of the world at war over conflict diamonds while providing a high level of quality entertainment. It never rants about America's misdeeds but presents the well-known fact that if people weren't buying these diamonds, there wouldn't be any war over them. It never slaps American wrists but it constantly flows with a purposeful cause and a riveting story. DiCaprio and Hounsou give two of the most impressive performances of the year (particularly the former) and switch seamlessly from wildly intense rage to biting cynicism to heartfelt sincerity. DiCaprio really manages to shine however with even more contrast displayed in his roller coaster quick romance with Jennifer Connelly's Bowen, a seductive and highly intelligent product of a journalist's background. There is also a subplot involving child soldiers that is just as informative as it is haunting and terribly unnerving.