Published Dec. 7, 2006 in Kansas City’s Sun Tribune, Sun Gazette and Liberty Tribune newspapers. 

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

By Steve Crum 

Movies set in Africa, telling of warring factions, poverty, genocide and corrupt governments, have proven to be both forceful political statements and strong box office. Last year’s Oscar-nominated Hotel Rwanda is an example. This year factor in the critically acclaimed The Last King of Scotland, Tsotsi and Catch a Fire. Now add director Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond, a solid action-adventure tale set in 1994 Sierra Leone. 

Zwick and screenwriter Charles Leavitt mount fiction upon fact via three central characters on their own personal quests who become webbed with diamond smuggling and terrorism. It all works well in a complex, riveting and disturbing way. The film suffers only in pacing: it seems longer its 134 minutes.

Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an ex-mercenary from Zimbabwe who has been into diamond smuggling for arms over the past few years. In a role that Errol Flynn or Gary Cooper would have fit years back, Archer is a hard-drive con man who uses charm and muscle to achieve profit. His dream is to find a golf ball sized pink diamond of the film’s title, which will buy him a new life outside of Africa.

Such a dream has nightmarish connections, as local fisherman Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) discovers. After his village is raided by government forces, he is taken to the diamond fields as a virtual slave. His wife and daughters end up in a refugee camp while his middle school-aged son, Dia, is trained to be a murderous child soldier. His first kill task involves being blindfolded and forced to fire a machine gun straight ahead as a prisoner is pushed in front. Then his blindfold is removed as fellow soldiers cheer his first kill. The homicidal brainwashing has begun. Each young boy is also given a killer nickname, further shaping his new identity. (A postscript at film’s end chillingly states there are currently more than 200 thousand child soldiers in Africa.)

Meanwhile, Dia’s father has found and hidden a large gem. He is recaptured by opposition forces and imprisoned, which is where he meets cell mate Archer. Despite Vandy’s tight lips, news of his diamond spreads, followed by Archer arranging to free himself and his new cash cow friend. Archer, of course, wants the diamond for himself; Vandy wants it to locate his family and finance a new life. 

Into the foray enters American journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), who equals Archer in getting what she wants—in this case the story of who is behind the diamond smuggling. The three soon team to help Solomon find his family, regain his son and locate the gem.

Zwick films typically have a textured, lush look to them—exemplified by Glory and The Last Samurai. Blood Diamond has it too. Credit Eduardo Serra’s Oscar-worthy camera. While passing out awards, both DiCaprio and Hounsou are likely candidates. 

Above all, it is the film’s vital human message that lingers—the sacrificial “blood” of the title. 

__________

GRADE on A-F Scale: B

__________