Leonardo DiCaprio (left), and Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond.
Leonardo DiCaprio (left), and Djimon Hounsou in
Blood Diamond.
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This is an example of Hollywood getting in touch with its
conscience while trying to ensure it also gives the box office its
money's worth. It sounds tricky, I know: pull too hard in either
direction and a filmmaker could injure something vital - like his
credibility.
The story is about the trade in so-called conflict diamonds - smuggled stones used to buy arms and finance civil wars. And even before the film's release, it realised one of its aims by shaking up some important diamond merchants.
The famously reticent African company De Beers went so far as to mount an energetic publicity campaign aimed at reassuring its customers they could go on glittering without guilt because the smuggling
of conflict diamonds has now been stamped out. Well, almost.
The film, however, is set in 1999 during the war in Sierra Leone, when the illicit trade was at its height. And it puts Leonardo DiCaprio in the middle of it. Squinting at the camera while blowing cigarette smoke out of the corner of his mouth, he's doing his best to counter his baby-faced good looks in the role of Danny Archer, a Zimbabwean mercenary who's supplying the rebel forces with arms in exchange for diamonds. He's the kind of swashbuckler who would once have been played by John Wayne or Burt Lancaster, although they wouldn't have attempted DiCaprio's diligently maintained Zimbabwean accent. Danny is an unapologetic reactionary who still calls Zimbabwe "Rhodesia".
But he does have charm. There's no argument on that score. Even Jennifer Connelly agrees. Especially Jennifer Connelly. She's cast as Maddy Bowen, a war reporter who's arrived in Sierra Leone via Bosnia and Afghanistan and is his match in every way. Charles Leavitt, who wrote the script and doesn't exactly have a light hand when it comes to exposition, is particularly thorough on this point and her terrier-like capacity for getting what she wants is widely advertised.
Right now, she wants to do an expose of the conflict diamond trade and she's determined to stick to Danny until he spills the guts of it, complete with names, addresses and the details of numbered bank accounts used to launder funds from the gems' sale.
But that will have to wait. Danny's first priority is Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a fisherman who was kidnapped by the soldiers of the country's Revolutionary United Front and is now free, but possibly not for long. Forced to work in one of its mines, he discovered a large pink diamond which he buried. Now Danny wants the diamond, as does the rebel officer who saw Solomon find it, while Solomon himself just wants his young son back - even if he's no longer the son he lost. Abducted by the rebels, the boy now totes an AK-47 as a child soldier.
All of this is spread over 2 1/4 hours of adventuring through village, jungle and mountain range - scenes in which the African landscape works its familiar magic. The director is Edward Zwick, whose earlier film, The Last Samurai, showed a similar feel for the seductions of a wide-screen vista.
There are also side trips to London and Antwerp for a fleeting glimpse of the diplomatic intrigues surrounding the international diamond trade.
Zwick does not hold back when it comes to the sufferings of Sierra Leone's civilians, who were subjected to atrocities of a singular viciousness, even by African standards. The conscription and indoctrination of the boy soldiers is laid out in particularly convincing detail, which makes the film all the more frustrating.
While Zwick's cameras - and perhaps his heart - were in Africa, his head remained in Hollywood, which has little time for qualification, equivocation or any other word of more than two syllables. As a result, he puts you right in the cauldron of the conflict only to let the heat go out of it because of the corniness of the script.
As the action intensifies, reality evaporates as swiftly as the mists that decorate the film's more evocative landscapes. Illogicalities pile up and coincidence assumes a starring role. Everybody automatically accepts that the diamond, sight unseen, must be worth trillions. Suicidally stupid moves are made in the unreliable name of suspense, and any empathy you might have been feeling fades fast as Danny and Solomon bicker and Danny and Maddy banter before embarking on the same arguments all over again.
The story is about the trade in so-called conflict diamonds - smuggled stones used to buy arms and finance civil wars. And even before the film's release, it realised one of its aims by shaking up some important diamond merchants.
The famously reticent African company De Beers went so far as to mount an energetic publicity campaign aimed at reassuring its customers they could go on glittering without guilt because the smuggling
of conflict diamonds has now been stamped out. Well, almost.
The film, however, is set in 1999 during the war in Sierra Leone, when the illicit trade was at its height. And it puts Leonardo DiCaprio in the middle of it. Squinting at the camera while blowing cigarette smoke out of the corner of his mouth, he's doing his best to counter his baby-faced good looks in the role of Danny Archer, a Zimbabwean mercenary who's supplying the rebel forces with arms in exchange for diamonds. He's the kind of swashbuckler who would once have been played by John Wayne or Burt Lancaster, although they wouldn't have attempted DiCaprio's diligently maintained Zimbabwean accent. Danny is an unapologetic reactionary who still calls Zimbabwe "Rhodesia".
But he does have charm. There's no argument on that score. Even Jennifer Connelly agrees. Especially Jennifer Connelly. She's cast as Maddy Bowen, a war reporter who's arrived in Sierra Leone via Bosnia and Afghanistan and is his match in every way. Charles Leavitt, who wrote the script and doesn't exactly have a light hand when it comes to exposition, is particularly thorough on this point and her terrier-like capacity for getting what she wants is widely advertised.
Right now, she wants to do an expose of the conflict diamond trade and she's determined to stick to Danny until he spills the guts of it, complete with names, addresses and the details of numbered bank accounts used to launder funds from the gems' sale.
But that will have to wait. Danny's first priority is Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a fisherman who was kidnapped by the soldiers of the country's Revolutionary United Front and is now free, but possibly not for long. Forced to work in one of its mines, he discovered a large pink diamond which he buried. Now Danny wants the diamond, as does the rebel officer who saw Solomon find it, while Solomon himself just wants his young son back - even if he's no longer the son he lost. Abducted by the rebels, the boy now totes an AK-47 as a child soldier.
All of this is spread over 2 1/4 hours of adventuring through village, jungle and mountain range - scenes in which the African landscape works its familiar magic. The director is Edward Zwick, whose earlier film, The Last Samurai, showed a similar feel for the seductions of a wide-screen vista.
There are also side trips to London and Antwerp for a fleeting glimpse of the diplomatic intrigues surrounding the international diamond trade.
Zwick does not hold back when it comes to the sufferings of Sierra Leone's civilians, who were subjected to atrocities of a singular viciousness, even by African standards. The conscription and indoctrination of the boy soldiers is laid out in particularly convincing detail, which makes the film all the more frustrating.
While Zwick's cameras - and perhaps his heart - were in Africa, his head remained in Hollywood, which has little time for qualification, equivocation or any other word of more than two syllables. As a result, he puts you right in the cauldron of the conflict only to let the heat go out of it because of the corniness of the script.
As the action intensifies, reality evaporates as swiftly as the mists that decorate the film's more evocative landscapes. Illogicalities pile up and coincidence assumes a starring role. Everybody automatically accepts that the diamond, sight unseen, must be worth trillions. Suicidally stupid moves are made in the unreliable name of suspense, and any empathy you might have been feeling fades fast as Danny and Solomon bicker and Danny and Maddy banter before embarking on the same arguments all over again.
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