Diamonds are Forever...Bloodied

Movie Review

Title:
Blood Diamond

Director:
Edward Zwick

Casts:
Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly

Writers:
Charles Leavitt


Solomon Vandy (Hounsou) is a fisherman who lived with his wife and son in one of the fishing villages in Africa (Sierra Leone, I think). He led an ordinary life (for a fisherman, at least) until one day a rebel army came to his village to pillage, plunder, and slaughter some of the villagers. The survivors, including Vandy, were turned into slaves to work in one of the diamond mines. One day he found a rare pink diamond and managed to hide it before he got caught by the government army who mistaken him as a member of the rebel's army.

A mercenary named Danny Archer (DiCaprio) overheard about the pink diamond, and stroke a deal with Vandy. Archer would help Vandy in finding his family in exchange for the pink diamond. Along the way, a journalist named Maddy Bowen (Connelly) came along to help them on their search, and escape from the hell that the country had become.

So, they all went to search for the pink diamond, but for different reasons. A mercenary trying to find a way to get out of Africa, a fisherman looking for his wife and son, and a journalist looking for the truth.

'Blood Diamond' is an entertaining enough movie. Story-wise, the movie brought forth a lot of issues like child-soldiers and conflict diamonds, among others. Acting is okay, the spotlight is on Hounsou. DiCaprio, in my opinion, is not convincing enough. Maybe it's just his voice, he doesn't sound like a gruff, weathered mercenary. Connelly's was okay enough.

One thing about this movie strikes me the most though: it can get a bit preachy at times and it wasn't even subtle about it. This is so blatantly apparent in some of the scenes. It's not a bad thing, really. It's just that I like movies whose stories are more objective and let the audience decide whatever they want to think about them. 'Blood Diamond' seemed set to tell the audience how they should think about the matters raised in the movie's story. Nonetheless, the points brought forth are worth thinking about, and I tend to agree with the opinion that this movie is bent on making. Let's just say that it made me think twice about buying diamonds.

With that said, it's an entertaining movie, with highlights on the storyline and Hounsou's performance. I'd say wait for the DVD, because visual and audio-wise, there's not enough reason to see it on the big screen.