Decent Action Fare

Rating: 7/10 (23 December 2007)

The problem with Blood Diamond isn't so much what it is, but what it purports to be: an important social statement. A third in Danny Archer - the Rhodesian former mercenary and now diamond smuggler well portrayed by DiCaprio - causticly reads aloud from the trite account reporter Jennifer Connelly types of shared harrowing experiences. A sentence or two into the exploitive, over-dramatized narrative she closes her laptop and agrees 'it's crap, and it won't change a thing.' It's an ironic moment.
The genocide of Sierra Leone is one of the great tragedies of the 20th century. Here it's mostly a backdrop for the Adventures of DiCaprio and Connelly. Will Archer retrieve the pink diamond from rebel territory and pay his debts? Will Connelly make a difference? Will love blossom between DiCaprio and Connelly? Will they escape and live happily ever after? What has any of this to do with the slaughter of innocents? Companion Djimon Hounsou's frantic quest to re-unite his family and rescue his kidnapped child from service in the rebel militia takes second place and the death of Sierra Leone a distant third. Both serve mostly as means for putting DiCaprio into new tense situations. Think shootouts, car chases and exposing international diamond smuggling scandals.
Without its pretensions Blood Diamond stands as a pretty good action/romance. Connelly is unconvincing as the far too beautiful and earnest battle-hardened field reporter but Hounsou's fisherman/father drawn into DiCaprio's quest for riches is well acted, if let down by the screenwriter's incessant need to force his character into insanely stupid and self-destructive acts for the sake of creating yet more 'tense situations'. It's well shot with memorable action sequences. When the film shifts long enough from its center to focus on the world of RUF child-soldiers or explore the relationship between DiCaprio's old white Africa and Hounsou's by-standing innocence, things get interesting. In the right hands it would make for an excellent movie with an important message.
With its false pretensions though the film ironically ranks as just another in a long line of exploitations, this time making money directly from African tragedy rather than creating one for the sake of rubber, oil or diamonds. For best effect watch it as a socially conscious 'Die Hard'.