Very thought provoking movie

Rating: 9/10 (2 August 2010)

Overall I thought this movie was excellent.
Flicking through the channels one night I came across Blood Diamond and thought I would give it a watch, half expecting some Hollywood take on Africa.
What I found was a thought provoking, emotionally moving movie that felt more African than Hollywood. I have read a fair bit about conflicts in Africa and as far as I can tell the movie was in no way over the top or sensationalist at all. Conflict is widespread across many countries in central Africa and this movie combines all of these elements in all their horror - massacres, forced child soldiers, mass displacement of refugees, corruption, dodgy western arms dealing and corporate greed which fuels the conflict. Indeed the movie avoided some elements which characterise the conflict - for instance no one of the fishermans family actually died, and you didn't see anyone actually raped which was widespread in Sierra Leone during the conflict as in other countries such as the Congo.
I thought both Leonardo and the fisherman were excellent, and as far as I could tell Leo did a very good accent and that is a challenging one to pull off.
The let down in the movie was Jennifer Connelly - its true that she didn't have much to work with but her character was frankly annoying. She came off like so many American tourists overseas who wander into situations they have no real comprehension of and start trying to solve the world in a very preachy manner. I didn't buy the romance between her and Leo (what would attract him to her? She's way too naive and the way she dangles herself in front of him like a carrot in exchange for info is rather irritating). It was fortunate they didn't actually sleep together as that would have been terribly clichéd.
That aside I was so pleased to find this movie after viewing so much sentimental, formulaic American rubbish of late. This movie was intelligent, educational and well worth watching. I don't own any diamonds myself and now am pretty much resolved never to touch one of those again, given that they reek of other people's suffering.