Blood Diamond (2007)
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
I watched this movie yesterday, and it broke my heart and made me think at the same time. Have you seen it yet? If you haven’t, I highly recommend you do, in fact, I wish that they’d show it in schools just to show todays youth what goes on in countries where conflict gems are sold for weapons to fund wars. It has really put that sort of thing into perspective for me, I mean think about it, what would you do if your family was torn apart and scattered across the country? Would you want your 10 year old son ripped away from your family and handed a gun and trained to kill people? What if you were forced to do something that helped fund a civil war, to gather these “Blood Diamonds” which are the cause of so much bloodshed. Would you buy a diamond knowing that a child had lost his arm or was shot for it? What if these things happened to you? I’ve realized a lot of things when I watched this movie and it also made me feel blessed that somehow, no matter how I complain that my life sucks at times, I don’t have the right to complain. Some had it worst.
This film, in my humble opinion, is truly extraordinary. I would never go as far to say any film is perfect, simply due to the fact that no film can incorporate everything and please everyone. So I am going to steal a phrase I remember someone using to describe one of his all time favorite novels in his blog review, “near perfect”.
The story evolved on a fisherman, Solomon Vandy (Djimon Honsou) when he walks with his only son, Dia (Kagiso Kuypers) from school, he sees a bunch of soldiers from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) gunning down men, women and children in their village of Shenge. Solomon tries to save his family from the ongoing massacre, but he is captured while they escape. The reason behind the shooting is that the rebels don’t the people to vote to change the way things were. Solomon is sent as labor to mine diamonds. While at the mines, Solomon finds a 100 carat light pink diamond. He buries it, but it caught when the Sierra Leone troops attack rebels and captures alike. Shoot first, ask questions later. He is taken for being rebel in their eyes.
A Rhodesian diamond smuggler, Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) pretends to be with National Geographic to cross into Liberia with the conflict diamonds placed inside the necks of goats. He is doing this assignment for Colonel Coetzee (Arnold Vosloo) that is working the large diamond exporters, Rudolf Van De Kaap (Marius Weyers) and Rupert Simmons (Michael Sheen) to supply the money for the never-ending conflict. (Getting confusing for you. I should.)
Archer is promptly arrested and taken to the same prison with Solomon is held. The person that captured Solomon, Captain Poison (David Harewood) announces to everyone including Danny that he buried the diamond. Danny is bailed out by his friend, Nabil (Jimi Mistry) to convince Coetzee, Van De Kaap and Simmons to split the cost of the pink diamond Solomon has found.
At a local bar, Danny meets a journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly). She tries to get information about Van De Kaap. How are the diamonds being exported from Liberia where there are not diamond mines? She wants his help to expose Van De Kaap and Simmons for their wheeling and dealing; names, dates, and number accounts of buyers of the conflict diamonds to take them down.
When Solomon is bailed out, he tries to find his family at various refugee camps. They are nowhere to be found. Still on the run, another group of rebels have taken Dia from his family. He is beaten and brainwashed into being a part of the child soldiers by Captain Poison.
Danny tracks down Solomon to find the location of the diamond that he buried. Split the cost of the diamond fifty/fifty to help get Solomon his family back and Danny enough money to pay off Colonel. They enlist the help of Maddy to ensure that they succeed in finding his family and recovering the diamond.
Of course, I was totally dismayed that Danny died in this movie but anyway, I still love this movie. It has a heavy subject in it but really worth watching, it has raised issues before and DiCaprio was nominated for Oscars in this movie as well. Again, if you haven’t watch this movie yet, do watch it. I have to rate this 9/10. Good Job! 
“Sometimes i wonder…Will God ever forgive us for what we’ve done to eachother?Then i look around and realise…God left this place a long time ago.” - Danny Archer
watch the trailer here:
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