great movie discussing global issue

Rating: Null/10 (16 February 2007)

this comment may contain spoilers
a great movie tackling a global human issue which is a result of the financial and industrial activities of the world's superpowers. Leonardo Di Caprio (archer) is a white south African who is involved in diamond smuggling and seems to be indifferent to the hell going around in Serra Leon and further agitated by countries making benefit from this fatal illegitimate trade. he comes to Serra Leon to finish a deal but is unfortunately caught and in prison he hears of Vandi (Hounsou) who has got a big rose priceless diamond.
archer decides to convince Vandi to guide him to the place where he has buried his diamond in return for reuniting him with his family after being shattered because of the civil war between the government and the rebels. this is the story in brief but there is much more in the movie to be noticed.
firstly, we know that smuggled diamond is part of the legal diamond trade and that the united states controls two thirds of this trade. traders are keen on keeping the civil war in Serra Leon going on to hold a firmer grip on the diamond resources in the torn country on one hand, and out of fear of the rebels who will pour large amounts of diamond into the world markets-if they ruled the country- thus lowering its price and causing companies unimaginable losses, on the other. wars are, therefore, military activities guided by economic motives in the first place. there is a very important sentence in the movie that sums up the sufferings of this African nation "thousands of people are paying their lives for diamonds they've never had".
the movie talks about another very important issue which is recruiting children. children are brainwashed,after being kidnapped,and instructed to be obedient slaves. they are robbed of their innocence and trained to commit the most evil vices. there are 200,000 children soldiers in Africa.
archer and Vandi set off in journey to find the rose diamond together with Jennifer Connelly the journalist who spent a large part of her life in different war zones trying to search for justice.
in this journey we come to know a lot about each of the three. archer's parents were ruthlessly killed in the civil war where his mother was raped and his father was beheaded, may be this is the main cause of his feverish desire to collect the hugest possible amount of money and leave the whole continent for good.
Connelly is seeking documents and evidence that prove the involvement of major companies in the smuggling of blood diamond. she manages to get documented information from archer about the blood diamond trade that will help her reveal the truth to the whole world.
archer has a closer look at the sufferings of civilians through the tragedy of Vandi's family- his wife and daughters at the refugee camp (and he meets them in a very touching scene)and his son kidnapped by the rebels. Vandi is ready to sacrifice anything for the sake of being reunited with his family, he is the total opposite of archer. so this interaction has left its impact on each of them.
in a very short scene archer is walking in Serra Leon with prostitutes gathered around him and one of them saying "no HIV", this is also an important point because large numbers of women, especially in Africa, have fallen into the clutches of slavery and aids out of poverty. they are the most vulnerable to be infected with sex-transferred diseases.
there some questions that came into my mind after the movie concerning archer's character, did he give Connelly the required information just to get her help to reach the diamond? could he have given the diamond to Vandi if he wasn't shot? in brief, was he really changed at the end of the movie ? Leo and Hounsou were both excellent, Connelly made the best out of her role. the violence scenes were very real, though i don't know to what extent computer graphics has intervened.
the part following the mountain scene at the end served as an anticlimax to the story yet i liked the scene in which Vandi goes to testify about the bitterness of the internal strife in his country. he comes to be the voice of the weak,fragile, oppressed part of the world to which no one listens or cares to know about. he goes into the room with the African music in his ears emphasizing his high sense of belonging.