by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
A- Rated R 150 min
The horror of the raging civil wars in Africa is chronicled in this powerful film. Which is a subtext addresses the exploitation of slave labor diamond mining in Sierra Leone by murderous rebel militias. Set in 1999, filmmaker Edward Zwick crafted an almost flawless scenario with brutally graphic action sequences. It is skillfully acted by a stellar cast, and presents as a broad spectrum of contrasts.
This penetrating scenario has everything anyone would want in a movie. It is an intelligently written script with inspired acting and top notch filmmaking.. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Danny Archer, a diamond smuggler working for a big diamond syndicate. In a twisty plot, Danny hooks up with a fisherman, Solomon Vandy ( Djimon Hounsou) who, during his internment as a slave laborer in the diamond mines, finds a large priceless pink diamond.
During a firefight with government soldiers Solomon gets away from his guards and hides the diamond, before running away into the bush. But later, he is captured. Coincidently, Danny and Solomon are incarcerated in the same prison. Danny overhears another prisoner tell of Solomon finding the diamond. Danny is all ears, and arranges to have Solomon released
Thus begins a shaky alliance between the two African natives from radically different backgrounds. Danny is more worried about his son who had been captured by warlords in a raid on his village. The ruthless thugs indoctrinate the boys with macho propaganda and arm them with AK-47s which some of them can barely lift up to their shoulders. The boys are hooked on drugs and turned into killers. This subplot runs parallel to the main story of Danny and Solomon traveling to the area where Solomon buried the diamond.
Leonardo DiCaprio is riveting as Danny, who was in the Rhodesian Army’s special forces. He occasionally does recon work for the Sierra Leone Army when his smuggling activities coincide with the Army’s mission. So, he has agreed to find Solomon’s boy and help Solomon get the diamond out of the country. Danger lurks at every turn with the Sierra Lione’s army clashing with the rebels in vicious battles. Danny and Solomon frequently get caught in the crossfire as they scramble to safety.
Along the way, Danny meets an American journalist, Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) working on a feature story about blood diamonds. She latches on to Danny as an important contact. Danny is not thrilled that she keeps popping up in his game plan.
Over his mercenary career, Danny has seen too much slaughter, making him bitterly cynical about the future of Africa. He sees Solomon’s diamond as his ticket out of the country. However, deep down, Danny is an adrenalin junky who loves Africa and its dangers. The country’s mystical allure haunts Danny’s consciousness. He says the sand is red from all the blood that has been spilled in the country. More significantly, he has built up a profitable life as a soldier of fortune and diamond smuggler. Now he risks his life to find the biggest natural pink diamond in history. He sees it as his destiny. He could care less about Solomon’s son, who is all but lost to Solomon.
Meanwhile, the forces of chaos are catching up with Danny and Solomon as they dodge bullets and explosions to find the diamond.
The tremendous heat and pressures that created the diamond symbolically represent the tumultuous conflicts raging across Africa, leaving untold death and suffering that tear at the soul of humanity. Zwick’s brilliant film lays bare the crumbling cultures of Africa as a study in extreme contrasts–life, death, and the struggle for hope and dignity.
The world sees diamonds as sparkling, beautiful and highly prized. They are symbols of love and fidelity, affluence and glamour. But in the African country of Sierra Leone, where many of the world’s diamonds are mined, they have taken on a much darker connotation.
Director/producer Edward Zwick explains, “‘Conflict diamonds’ are stones that have been smuggled out of countries at war. They then go to pay for more arms furthering the destruction of the region. They may be a small percentage of the world’s sales, but, nonetheless, in an industry worth billions of dollars, even a small percentage is worth many millions and can buy innumerable small arms. In the late 1990s, people from such NGOs as Global Witness, Partnership Africa-Canada and Amnesty International gave them a name in order to help bring the crisis into the public consciousness: They called them ‘blood diamonds.’” Zwick had only a passing knowledge of the term and its meaning when producer Paula Weinstein first sent him the script. “I had heard the phrase, but I didn’t fully understand its implications,” he offers. “The more I learned, the more fascinated and horrified I became, and the more I realized this was a story that needed to be told…I don’t think movies can ever be too intense, but people have to understand why you’re showing them the things you are showing them. In the case of ‘Blood Diamond,’ there are brutal truths, but there is also great beauty and emotion to be found in the lives of those caught up in those situations.”
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