One of the 10 best of 2006

Rating: 10/10 (22 March 2007)

I have been a fan of action films almost of my entire long life. I watched some many times.
Blood Diamond is of the same breed of movie, Instead of Burt Lancaster we have Leonardo De Caprio, slick &, charming & ever so deadly. Instead of Sidney Poitier we have Djimon Hounsou as the poor noble man looking for his wife & children & instead of Maureen O' Hara we have Jennifer Connelly as the intrepid reporter.,Granted my 3 names from the past never made a film together, But this film has all the same ingredients, Instead of a false ,phony story way back then, we have a more vital truthful story here..
The villains are still the same only this time more realistically vicious.
In fact the only thing missing is a free-for all barroom brawl. Thanks for small favours.
All the production credits are excellent. THis is a long film 143 minutes, If I were to be picky I would state the the last 15 minutes before the credits began to roll,were very slow moving. The first 130 or so minutes moved at a rapid pace.
As much as I loved the older movies of my youth,the stores they told were very juvenile on most cases. Now-a-days at least they are more realistic & honest.
The story & screenplay was written by Charles Leavitt was masterly directed by Edward Zwick. ALL the production credits were excellent.
rating ****(out of 4) 97 points (out of 100) IMDb 10 (out of 10)