Sunday, July 8, 2007

Blood Diamond


Ben and I watched Blood Diamond last night. We both agreed that it was an excellent film - I highly recommend it! I didn't know much about the movie going into it, but the storyline was exciting, interesting, and very tragic. The perfomances were riveting, and the backdrop scenary of Africa was beautiful.

The story is set in the Sierre Leone War in 1999. Didn't know there was a war? Join the club. I liked how in one scene it shows Bill Clinton on the news with the Monica Lewinsky scandal and talks about America's preoccupation with fake news rather than real world events.

This story tells the tale of two very different men. Solomon Vandy (Djimon Housou) is a husband and father of three children. One day while bringing his young son home from school, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) attacks his village, kidnapping Solomon to work in the diamond fields. At a later date, Solomon's son, Dia, is also kidnapped and forced to be a child soldier. While working in the fields, Solomon finds a large, rare pink diamond and manages to hide it as the camp is attacked by government forces, but not before Captain Poison sees him with the diamond.

While in jail after the attack, Solomon meets Danny Archer (Leonardio DiCaprio) a white mercernary from Rhodesia. Danny overhears Captain Poison shouting about Solomon's diamond find, and immediately takes an interest. Danny has no family and is in all sorts of shady deals to make himself a buck. After both are released from jail, they make an agreement. Danny will help Solomon find his family and in return, Solomon will lead Danny to the diamond.

It is an adventure of epic proportions, with many scary twists and turns including a heart pounding chase scene. The movie had great character growth as well as action. It was also eye opening as I had no idea about the problems with "blood diamonds" or diamonds that come from conflict zones. It's hard to believe that people live in such fear and poverty. It makes me realize how lucky I am to be an American.

The actors were great in this movie. After Titanic, I thought Leonardo DiCaprio was a boy faced man that ladies swooned after. The last few years of great roles have shown me that he is actually a great actor - and can even be a manly adventure actor at that.

I highy recommend this movie, except for those who can't take scense of graphic violence. It's not gratituous, but does illustrate the horrors that were going on at the time.


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