Hard-hitting and powerful

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2009)

Blood Diamond starts off with some brutal imagery and never lets up. It combines quantity and quality to get its point across. It wants to put across a strong message to the viewer and then intertwine a story around that. It does all this very well.
The film takes itself very seriously and there is no times for laughs. I can recall chuckling once at a line during the entire film and that was amidst something else pretty shocking happening. We never think to ourselves that we should be due a laugh soon, because the films tone is set early and set clearly.
The story itself is all linked together extremely well and all the elements combine brilliantly. At first I thought Jennifer Connelly's character had just been added to give the film a female element and perhaps to add some conflict. But in actuality her character is made vital to the end product, due again to the great writing.
A very good film, as we've come to bank on when Leonardo Dicaprios name is on the billing. Be prepared, mind you, because at times this film is anything but easy watching. And in a lot of ways that's what's so good about it.