"Blood Diamond" is an unfortunate disappointment

Rating: 5/10 (9 April 2007)

"Blood Diamond" is the story of Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) a fisherman who lives in Sierra Leone where a civil war is being fought between the Government and rebel troops known as the RUF (Revolutionary United Front). When his village is attacked by the rebels, Solomon's family flees as he is abducted and sent to work in the diamond mine fields where the money spent on the precious resource by international companies is used to buy illegal weapons and finance the war. Coming across a large pink diamond, Solomon buries it as government troops attack the mine field throwing all survivors in jail where he comes across Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), a former soldier turned diamond smuggler from Zimbabwe. Finding out that Solomon has possession of a diamond that can help him get out of Africa once and for all, Archer makes a deal with Solomon where he will help find his family if he leads him to the diamond. Archer in turn makes comes to an agreement with American journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) who will use her resources to help locate Solomon's family in exchange for inside information on who, where and how the illegal diamond trade works. Things however get complicated when Solomon's family is located in a refugee camp minus his son Dia (Kagiso Kuypers) who is tortured, drugged and trained to be a child soldier for the RUF leading to a conflict of interest between Solomon and Archer whose main priority is possession of the diamond first and rescuing Dia second. Meanwhile Archer's employee and former commander Colonel Koetzee (Arnold Vosloo) also wants in on the deal. Directed by Edward Zwick (whose previous film "The Last Samurai" was one of the best of that year), "Blood Diamond" is an unfortunate disappointment which tries to hard to put its message across. The main problem has to do with the fact that I've already seen this film at least half a dozen times before. Corruption, murder and civil war in Africa at the hands of rebels/international companies/governments can make compelling viewing in the hands of the right film maker ("Cry Freedom", "Hotel Rwanda" and "The Constant Gardener" are all great examples). Yet "Blood Diamond" just does not deliver. It doesn't pull at the heart strings like it should, Solomon's dilemma not scoring in the emotional stakes no matter how hard they try, the action scenes are well shot but seem out of place and the movie runs way to long with an extremely dismal and tacky ending ruining whatever credible it had. However it can be a rather brutal film. The body count is high, the beautiful scenery undone by the brutal savagery of the rebels as the disturbing images of brainwashed children, high on drugs and trained to be killers gun down helpless villages. The movies saving grace comes from Leonardo DiCaprio who gives another career defining performance and, along with his work in "The Departed" has won this reviewer over. With a pitch perfect accent, DiCpario plays a man jaded by bitter horrific experience, a classic contradiction as his willingness to do good is undone by his greed. Djimon Honsou is also good with a powerful and emotive display that although is a little over the top at times, his credible presence gives whatever film he appears in a sense of class. Jennifer Connelly's talents unfortunately are wasted, the Oscar winning actress delegated to nothing more than eye candy, although her role may be the most important as the journalist looking for a story big enough to garner the world's attention. And with that comes the question: does "Blood Diamond" make a big enough impact to actually change the attitude of a world obsessed with 'bling'? Or is it a case of to little to late to actually make an impact amongst does whose only source of international affairs comes from the cinema's they frequent? The only thing I know for sure is as long as every rap video contains a Bentley with diamond incrusted steering wheels and every gushing new bride drools over her shiny new rock on her finger, than the message is not getting across quick enough.