"That diamond is my ticket out of this God-forsaken continent."

Rating: 7/10 (23 September 2007)

'Blood Diamond' is probably most accurately described, first and foremost, as an action movie, with its other well-meaning cinematic intentions not being quite so well-realised. However, as a whole, the film is highly entertaining, and held aloft by two outstanding central performances. During the Sierra Leone Civil War of the 1990s and early 2000s, billions of dollars in diamonds were mined and sold around the world, the profits used to finance further conflict. These diamonds are widely known as "blood diamonds," from which the title of this film was derived. Over the course of the war, tens of thousands lost their lives, and countless more fled the country as refugees.
Edward Zwick's 'Blood Diamond' opens in 1999, revealing a poverty-stricken country that has been torn apart by the bitter struggle between government forces and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels. Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) is a loving father who was captured during the rebel insurgence and forced to mine for diamonds to fund RUF's activities. Meanwhile, his son Dia (Kagiso Kuypers) has been captured by the rebels and conscripted to become a child soldier, involving a brutal process of brainwashing that transforms children into bloodthirsty killers. Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a "Rhodesian" weapons smuggler, devoid of morals and thinking only of his next pay-cheque. After Solomon unearths an extremely valuable pink-tinged diamond, Danny exploits him for the information of its whereabouts, though he isn't the only one who wants to get his hands on it.
As I mentioned earlier, both Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou give excellent performances, and each was deservedly nominated for an Oscar at the 2007 Academy Awards. DiCaprio, notorious for always looking young and immature on screen, finally casts aside this troublesome stereotype as the selfish and grizzled firearms trafficker, accompanied by an unusual African accent that, nonetheless, never falters. Hounsou plays his role of devoted father with a lot of passion, his most impressive scene taking place at the UN refugee camp, when his relief at being reunited with his family turns to unadulterated rage when he hears that his beloved son has been stolen from him. Conversely, Jennifer Connelly is merely adequate as American journalist Maddy Bowen, who has arrived in Sierra Leone to investigate the illegal diamond trade.Oddly, the actress is seemingly trying to appear seductive in just about every one of her scenes, though perhaps this was a deliberate decision to highlight how she uses her "charm" to obtain information.
'Blood Diamond' contains some excellent action sequences, but Eduardo Serra's camera darts about so frantically that it's often difficult to decipher what is happening on screen. I felt that the extended ending was unnecessary (it should have ended on the mountainside), and the epilogue seemed like an attempt to make the film appear more significant than it actually was: after all, 'Blood Diamond' was a interesting character study and an excellent action/adventure film, but it says little of any substance about the diamond trade, beyond that it is bad. In any case, the theme of large international corporations getting rich at the expense of poverty-stricken Africans was handled slightly better in 'The Constant Gardener (2005),' whilst the issue of children being taught to become killers was more effective in 'Cidade de Deus / City of God (2002).' Interestingly, both of these were directed by Fernando Meirelles.
Though perhaps a bit too ambitious for its own good, Edward Zwick's 'Blood Diamond' is an entertaining two hours, and has its own fair share of positive attributes. At the very least, it brought the horrific Sierra Leone Civil War to my attention; I'd honestly never heard of it before. That alone is enough for me to consider this film a success.