Blood Diamond
This powerful movie puts the brutality and chaos of civil war in Africa in the viewer’s face in an uncompromising and unrelenting way. Leonardo DiCaprio gives an excellent performance as a Danny Archer, a diamond smuggler working the diamond black market from war-torn Sierra Leone where rebels run slave diamond mines to finance their war against the government. Djimon Hounsou also delivers a moving performance as Solomon Vandy, a fisherman whose family is torn apart by the marauding rebel gangs. He finds a large diamond in the mine and hides it before ending up in prison with Archer who immediately sees in Vandy a ticket out of Africa.
Vandy’s sole concern is to find his family, a wife and two young daughters who are refugees, and his son who is abducted and brainwashed by the rebels. With the help of Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) a journalist investigating the illegal diamond trade, Vandy and Archer form an uneasy alliance to find Vandy’s family and get the diamond to Archer who can turn it into cash.
The movie packs a tremendous amount into its 2 hours and 20 minutes, but it never feels bloated. We see the devastation of civil war and the brutal guerrilla war tactics of marauding youths. It is gut-wrenching, and unflinchingly realistic. We also see the interconnection of the global diamond trade with regional conflicts, and the need for the diamond cartels to control the supply and keep diamond prices high. And we see a broad portrait of conflict in Africa through the life of Archer as a mercenary soldier. It is a powerful and affecting movie.
Sierra Leone is now peacefully and legally exporting diamonds which account for about one-third of its hard currency exports. While that tiny country is at peace, the brutality of the civil war depicted in the movie is a painful but necessary reminder of other conflicts in Africa, such as the Sudan and Congo.