That bling on your finger is bloody

Rating: 8/10 (5 September 2009)

Edward Zwick does another brilliant piece of directing in "Blood Diamond," a 2006 film starring Leonardo di Caprio, Jennifer Connelly, and Djimon Hounsou.
Set during the Sierra Leone Civil War in 1999, the film shows a country torn apart by the struggle between government soldiers and rebel forces.[1] The film portrays many of the atrocities of that war, including the rebels' amputation of people's hands to stop them from voting in upcoming elections.
The diamond industry, as the ivory industry before it, is proving disastrous to civilians as the film opens in 1999. When the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) invade Shenge, a small Sierra Leonian village, a man, Solomon (Hounsou) is taken as the rest of his family escapes and made to work in the diamond fields. Diamonds are smuggled into Liberia and exported from there, its profits used by the rebels to fund the war. Solomon's son, meanwhile, is conscripted into the rebel forces and brainwashed, becoming a child killer.
While working in the fields, Solomon finds a large pink diamond and manages to hide it just as there is an attack. He is seen hiding it by the captain, Poison (David Harewood). Harewood is badly injured, but along with Solomon and the others, he is arrested. While in prison, he screams that Solomon has a large diamond. Once out of prison, Solomon is approached by a mercenary (di Caprio) who wants that diamond in order to sell it to a middleman, who in turn will sell it to one of the legitimate cartels. Solomon wants his family. Then they meet a beautiful journalist (Jennifer Connelly) who wants to expose the big diamond cartel as dealing in blood diamonds.
A violent, powerful, beautifully photographed and fascinating story with an extraordinary performance by Leonardo di Caprio, "Blood Diamond" leaves little doubt about the greed that has destroyed the lives of so many millions of people. Zwick tells the story graphically. Hounsou, Connelly, Harewood, and the rest of the cast are excellent as people in one way or another caught up in the quest for diamonds, many times in order to just hide them away in order to keep the prices high.
At the end of the film, one of the chirons cautions people to demand that the diamonds they buy are conflict-free. Yet, after seeing "Blood Diamond," I wonder if one can ever be sure of getting the truth.