Movie Reviews
In �Blood Diamond,� Leonardo DiCaprio plays Danny Archer, a diamond smuggler in Africa. Archer seems heartless and dead set on having it his way, which is usually how it turns out. His past dictates his values and his skills, all of which involve violence as a necessary means of financial stability.
Djimon Hounsou is Solomon Vandy, an African farmer who is torn apart from his family when rebels raid his village and send the males to diamond mines. Solomon�s son is separated from him and picked up by a group of people not unlike those who burnt his village. Over the following months, Solomon�s son is brain washed about topics and politics of the day, forced to raid other villages to acquire more workers in order to find more diamonds. All the while, Solomon himself searches for diamonds in a different mine, totally unaware of where his beloved son is.
Jennifer Connelly is Maddy Bowen, an American journalist hoping to expose the crooked diamond business to the rest of the world. She�s bent on accomplishing this task, but at the same time knows what an impossibility it is.
Eventually, these three characters become bound to each other through financial and moral obligations. Each one is helping the other, using the other for their gain. The moral struggle underlying their relationship is the solid foundation upon which �Blood Diamond� sits.
One day on the job, Solomon finds a large pink diamond. Knowing the power of such a diamond, he is lucky to find a hiding spot for it just as an air raid unfolds yards away. Through a very dangerous grape vine, the wrong men hear about this diamond. All of them want it; all of them will resort to extreme measures to get it.
This is a very good movie. Director Edward Zwick is good about choosing timely issues to make movies about, ranging from �Glory� in the late 80s to �The Siege� in the mid-90s. He�s a director of enormous skill, able to make sweeping, large-scale action sequences look like child�s play. Except that people are getting killed. That�s not child�s play.
Zwick has always been able to pull off great performances from his actors as well. Our three leads here are electric. DiCaprio�s Zimbabwe accent is hard to place, which is why it seems authentic. (Whether it actually is or not is something I�ll probably never know.) Connelly is always a nice surprise. She adds subtle touches here and there; watch how seamlessly she rides the scale from nice to angry.
Djimon Hounsou is such an underappreciated actor. I�ve never, in all his years of obscure (sometimes similar) roles, seen him hit an even remotely sour not. He�s a naturally pitch-perfect performer. It�s not hard to be swiftly drawn into his words, such as in scenes where he shows just what he�s willing to do to find his son. No other actor (in my memory) can display such strength through such vulnerability.
And this story. �Blood Diamond� is a relevant movie right now. It reveals the tendency of higher class nations to be ignorant to the problems something as small as a diamond can cause. More importantly, it very affectively refrains from preaching that message and instead shows us the consequences. When �Blood Diamond� isn�t entertaining, it�s provoking. *** �