Blood Diamond (2006)

Blood Diamond is a film that has a moral message behind it which is something that would normally put me off. Leonardo Di Caprio plays a guy who is involved in the business of Conflict diamonds meanwhile a guy called Soloman Vandy whose life is ripped apart when a family is torn apart by a rebel army who end up taking Soloman’s son and train him to be a child soldier. The film then moves towards getting Soloman reunited with his family and get his son. The film has a rather harrowing start where a village is attacked and there is a shot of someone having their hand cut off. The harrowness of the start does get toned down but its always in the air of the scene.

Leonardo Di Caprio is someone that has become a very good actor. I remember seeing him in Romeo and Juliet and Titanic and being amazed and how the person who appears in those films becomes the same Leonardo Di Caprio that we see in this and The Aviator. His accent is quite good but does become ropey when he’s shouting. Djimon Hounsou is truly stunning as its effectively his story who goes through all the emotions and it’s a show stealing performance. David Harewood (currently in Homeland) is fantastic as the fantasticly named Captain Poison. He’s a totally loathsome person who is sadly what I suspect a captain in this part of the world is like. His death his done partly out of shot but its due to Hounsou’s face that make it a great exit.
The film’s not perfect. Jennifer Connelly is pretty poor as Maddy Bowen. The character is a journalist that comes across as neither interesting or annoying. Just someone that has been put in there to provide a love interest but doesn’t even do that. I thought that whenever she was on it ruined the story. Another thing I don’t like are the moral lectures that the film goes on about how conflict diamonds have entered the shops and whilst I understand that this is wrong and think that anyone who knowingly uses them is a dreadful person, the fact I know this means that I don’t need the story explained to me like I’m stupid.
Blood Diamond is a film that should be watched but not if your squeamish. There are some genuinely impressive moments and its directed with a certain amount of style but I felt that the lecture could have been removed and it wouldn’t have made the film any less important.