Movie Review: Blood Diamond

By Anne Brodie Dec 5, 2006, 8:26 GMT

Set against the backdrop of civil war and chaos in 1990s Sierra Leone, Blood Diamond is the story of Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), a South African mercenary, and Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a Mende fisherman.  Both men are African, but their histories as different as any can be, until their fates become joined in a common quest to recover a rare pink diamond that can transform their lives.  While in ...more

The long awaited political action drama, Leonardo DiCaprio’s second major film this season after ‘The Departed,’ supports a cause – drawing attention to the violence done to Africans in the ‘conflict’ diamond trade; that is – diamonds harvested by slave labor and used to finance civil and illegal wars.

Who better to draw a crowd to a film with a message than Leo? Message films are notoriously unpopular and God knows this particular cause is hard to swallow. So darling Leo will get bums in seats, the filmmakers hope.

Leo is Danny Archer, a nomadic South African smuggler, living off the woes of his continent, whether selling drugs, guns or moving illegal funds, he doesn’t care what side of the bloodbath his customers are on, as long as they pay up.

An African fisherman named Solomon (Djimon Hounsou) meanwhile is kidnapped into harvesting diamonds. One fateful day he finds a 100-carat rough pink diamond on the riverbed and although he knows what happens to slaves who try to steal diamonds – immediate execution – he slips it between his toes.

He manages to get away for a few minutes to bury it, but the boss sees him and demands it for himself. He is about to murder Solomon when soldiers arrive and shoot the place up. Solomon escapes.

Archer finds out about Solomon’s diamond; we suspect he wants it for himself to sell to a Dutch diamond conglomerate. His efforts to win Solomon’s trust are suspect to us and to Solomon.

He has a family to worry about in the war torn country. His son has been kidnapped by rebel forces and, like the other of the child soldiers, is being trained to kill, to live lives of degradation, murder and anarchy.  Solomon’s wife and children are in a refugee camp of about one million people, to be kept there until a peace can be reached, which may never happen.

The situation is hopeless in a country at war with itself, where life is cheap. Dozens and dozens of murders are depicted throughout Blood Diamond. There is a terrific amount of gunplay, supposedly re-creating the events of the civil wars across Africa, wherever commodities valuable to the western world can be produced. Rubber, oil, diamonds - if whites want these things they get them, through the enslavement, murder and war. 

The film suggests that the world community does nothing because it doesn’t know, and it doesn’t know because it doesn’t care. News organizations won’t cover these stories because they are dangerous and difficult to produce and audiences don’t care. After all, TIA, this is Africa.

Besides this seething violence, the personal stories of Archer and Solomon are great premises for a story. But Zwick has taken the film down a surprisingly sentimental path.

Hotel Rwanda was immensely powerful and about civil war in Africa.  There were few pretty emotions.

Blood Diamond has loads of them and so is necessarily predictable. There is an excessive number of clichés and ultimate disappointment. Considering what it could have been makes its failure more bitter.

Even so Hounsou and DiCaprio put in strong, sure performances that may be remembered during awards season. They are doing their part to raise awareness about conflict diamonds and that is a positive result of their work on the film. MPAA: Rated R for strong violence and language.

Opens wide USA December 8.  MPAA: Rated R for strong violence and language