“Sometimes I wonder, will God ever forgive us for what we've done to each other, but then I look around and realize, God left this place a long time ago.” Those, the words of Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) to describe his home, Sierra Leone, Africa, in the powerful Blood Diamond, are the truest I've heard of the struggles of that continent, and the reason that I am so intrigued and moved by the stories that take place there. Yet I will never visit because Sally Struthers will eat me.
In one of those “movies designed to send a message,” Blood Diamond focuses around the wars surrounding the tiny, shiny, stones that rich pricks spend thousands upon thousands of dollars for to establish status, power, and get a few extra blowjobs in the process (before you ask...yes, I've bought diamonds before for someone, but I loved her too!). This diamond is a special one, the size of a bird's egg, incredible value, clarity, and color; one of those that could...and does move armies, and it was found by lowly fisherman turned slave Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) and cleverly hidden away with the hopes of using it as leverage to perhaps get out of that god-forsaken place.
During a raid, Solomon gets captured and word of the diamond gets out and across the ears of Danny, who does everything in his power to make sure that he gets his hands on the stone for pretty much the same reason (the escaping part...not the blowjobs part). And so the two set out across the jungles surviving impossible situation after impossible situation, playing the angles to survive long enough to throw the ring into the volcano...oh...wait. Sorry...to get back to the spot where the diamond is buried (while Danny chants “My precious.”).
The only way Solomon will give up the location, however, is if he can get his family back, who have been cast into the fiery pits of Africa's overworld, his son now a ruthless soldier, his wife and daughter trapped in refugee camps that look like nothing short of concentration camps. Danny plays along with this ridiculous crusade with little care of that outcome as long as he gets his diamond, but over the course of the film, develops a certain admiration for the dedication and strength Solomon shows to reunite his family.
All of this wraps into a nice little package with Jennifer Connelly playing the role of the journalist determined to expose this whole blood diamond business for what it really is, which is essentially what the movie winds up doing better...she's there to give this whole thing some purpose, I guess.
Stories surrounding Africa are always hard to watch. They're ruthless and “us white folk” are always seen as the puppetmasters pulling the strings because...well...we're usually pulling the strings. It's hard to do well in cinema, and director Edward Zwick does a masterful job of showcasing the treachery of the African wars and makes it truly a place that you can only weep for in a way that doesn't seem overdone. It's not an activist movie showing the dead bodies of the victims of this poor ruined land, it's a thriller that demonstrates the sad comfort level that the locals have for what their home has become.
As Danny and Solomon go from location to location, all ravaged and poisoned by child soldiers whose Jiminy Crickets were fried under the magnifying glasses of anti-government radicalism and fueled by the hysteria-inducing suns of the African desert, the situation looks more and more hopeless and the only truth discovered is that of Darwinian ideology: this truly is “Survival of the Fittest.” The film never loses that. There are no revelations of “oh, me as a character needs to make a drastic change for the good of everybody.” It's like The Day After Tomorrow, survive it and move the fuck on.
Though DiCaprio's accent shifts around a little bit from big-budget-Animal-Planet-explorer-show to...low-budget-PBS-explorer-show, it's masked by the, once again, brilliant work done by Djimon Hounsou, whose anger and passion fills the screen with the kind of rage that could only come from a loving father who will fight with the devil himself to do what's best for his family. I have nothing but respect for this amazing actor.
There is a lot to love about Blood Diamond, but there was a certain repetition to it that I felt could have been better used to perhaps deal with the over-arching story of the journalist vs. the big diamond company as this was a movie designed to fuck their world up. Two hours of “go to a place, run from a place, go to a place, run from a place” only works for so long and although I was never really bored from this movie, it did get into a “well, let's talk and wait for some moron to start shooting” routine as if to constantly remind us to pay attention because this Africa thing sucks. Oh yeah, and it took the cheap, sappy ending route too, but I'll let you find that one out.
All in all, loved the film and would totally watch it again. Filmed beautifully, performed very well, and just gritty and dirty and all around moving, Blood Diamond matches its other diamond flick Flawless in the 9 dustbusters out of 10 standings. Highly recommended by me.
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