Zwick strikes out again

Rating: 4/10 (8 February 2007)

I had my doubts about this film for one reason and one reason only; Edward Zwick. Zwick is one of those directors who can take a potentially brilliant film and reduce it to typical, patronising, Hollywood mediocrity; the kind of film you don't really need to see in order to know what happens and how (more recent examples include 'Legends of the Fall' and 'The Last Samurai'). Sure enough, that's precisely what he's done here.
'Blood Diamond' is pitched as a gritty drama about the diamond trade, when in fact it's little more than a generic American action movie which happens to be set in Africa.
Every African character in the movie is either a savage, a scumbag or a simpleton, DiCaprio and Hounsou being the ultimate of the latter two stereotypes respectively. The only character blessed with both decency and intelligence is - surprise, surprise - the American. Is this what America really thinks of Africa? If so, how dare they make a film that purports to care about the suffering of the African people?
The diamond trade is little more than a backdrop to yet another action-packed "story of one man's redemption". Our anti-hero (Leo) is self-serving scum who learns to be a decent guy from a nice American girl. Besides the fact that this idea is obscenely patronising, Jennifer Connelly looks far too beautiful and well-kept to convince us that this girl-with-a-heart-of-gold has been slumming it around Africa for three months. Leo's character development is completely inconsistent and fuelled by awful dialogue and overacting by all concerned. These are all pretty obvious flaws, for which I blame Zwick, not the actors.
Hounsou's character is a token "poor, simple African farmer" who so desperately needs the help of the white man and the nice American girl to find his family. While these supposed ironies are addressed in the film, its message ultimately seems to be a) that Africa is made up simply of sociopathic mercenaries and their victims, nothing in between; and b) that only the nice Americans can save them all from self-destruction.
There is a sub-plot wherein Hounsou's son is turned into a child soldier by the rebels. Firstly, this seemed like it belonged in a different film, and the subject is more than worthy of some strong media attention which is to say, a film of its own. To make matters worse, the boy's transition is hammered home in truly amateur style through a series of over-the-top montages. It would have been much more powerful for the audience not to see the transition, but to see the boy he became and then come to understand how it happened. Ultimately, that part of the story simply felt forced.
Alas, that part of the story was really the only part which showed just how awful the effects of the diamond trade are, as the rest of the film was dedicated to Leo's road-to-redemption-movie-by-numbers. Leo does very well with the two-dimensional character he is given, despite Zwick's tendency to push actors too far into the theatrical, and his accent is consistently convincing. That said, his performance in 'Blood Diamond' doesn't come close that in 'The Departed', yet the Academy chose not to acknowledge the latter.
Jennifer Connelly seems to have little function other than to look beautiful (which she surely does), and struggles to bring the character to life. Hounsou, however, is typically brilliant and virtually unrecognisable in his role, as his every gesture and mannerism is that of the character. One does get the feeling that Zwick pushed him hardest of all, as his underplaying is periodically interrupted by its antithesis.
Some fine acting aside, what we are left with is ultimately just a hollow action movie, a sort of sub-par Indiana Jones, if you will. The action sequences are very well done, but one cannot help but feel a little guilty in "enjoying" them, given the context of the film.
The action and drama wouldn't be complete without James Newton Howard, whose score reflects the pretentiousness of the film beautifully. Why is it that film-makers want to make a movie about Africa, and have an African score, but they don't want to use an African composer? Needless to say, the music is a completely pseudo (think 'The Lion King'), western interpretation of African music, which only serves to discredit the film further.
As for the political intentions of the film, there are early reports that it has had a negative impact on the diamond trade. Some papers even reported that certain diamond outlets offered to give $10,000 to charity for each celebrity that wore a diamond to the film's premier. Realistically though, how long is it likely to be before the next slew of movie divas and rappers make diamonds fashionable again?
Sadly, this film is so wide of the mark that it stands no chance of having a lasting impact, despite its noble intentions. The real problem is that however "real" or "shocking" it strives to be in order to put its message across, it is still just another American movie, and the audience - knowingly or not - always have that comfort in the back of their minds. The reason film-makers like Fernando Meirelles and Alejandro González Iñárritu pull off films like this, is that they take away that comfort.
'Blood Diamond' is, at best, a small, guilty pleasure. Of course, it's sufficeiently manipulative to dupe most people into taking it seriously, hence the high rating. It'll be interesting to see how many useful votes I get for this comment... I'm sure they'll prove my point.