I cannot rave enough about this movie

Rating: 10/10 (17 May 2007)

When I saw Hotel Rwanda about a year ago, it was the saddest, most disturbing, most depressing movie I'd seen in my life. Blood Diamond is a very close second. And like Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamond was masterfully done. It almost seems paradoxical that a movie so incredibly sad and morose could be considered excellent. But oddly, it is the movie's ability to evoke such deep and genuine emotions that makes it so good.
DiCaprio, Hounsou, and Connelly were phenomenal. I haven't seen every DiCaprio movie, but his performance in this picture outstrips everything before it. His character was very complex and layered and he nailed it. He displayed greed, love, ambivalence, and even honor. He was magnificent and I never even once honed in on the accent.
Hounsou was equally wonderful. He delivered his role with such emotion and such believability that you'd swear that he was reliving an event he'd experienced before. In fact, it was the acting of DiCaprio and Hounsou that triggered most of the various emotions I felt while watching Blood Diamond. I say most of the emotions because the camera work and excellent directing to depict the despair of the African people triggered the rest of the despondent feelings I had.
This movie successfully captured the plight of a people and the plight of one man, all the while seamlessly tying in other ancillary interests and conflicts, such as that of Danny Archer (DiCaprio), Maddy Bowen (Connelly), and other characters who were driven solely by greed. This movie was riveting, relevant, very hard hitting, and just gushing with excellence. I was told of this movie's merit and also duly warned because it is not for the faint of heart. But I'd say that the way that this movie was done was necessary in order to avoid belittling an otherwise great and tremendous issue. There was really no other way to impact the audience without the intense scenes and intense drama that was shown. This movie heaped one heavy hearted scene upon another, pushing the audience to the brink and testing our fortitude and resilience. Would we turn away to avoid a stark reality and continue to live happily ever after because ignorance is bliss. Or would we watch so that we can be apprised of what is going on outside of our safe confines and how it in fact has to do with our way of life. Yes, our fancies and indiscretions do affect lives outside of the Western world.
As an African-American I felt especially obliged to watch Blood Diamond, and I felt especially saddened by what I saw. And I would be remiss if I didn't cite the most memorable line to me, and that is when Solomon Vandy said:
"I understand White people want our diamonds, yes. But how can my own people do this to each other?"