Edward Zwick directed Glory and The Last Samurai, and when you watch Blood Diamond you can tell its by the same guy. It has all of those films charms and all of their mediocrity. This film moves along with more of a moral conscience than his previous films but less cinematic grandeur(which is a good thing in this case), but just enough to water down any emotions the film may have.Danny Archer(Leonardo DiCaprio) is a mercenary/smuggler who is on the lookout or his big ticket out of Africa. It comes along when a guerrilla captured fisherman Solomon(Djimon Honsou) finds a rare pink diamond. Archer uses his shady connections to get Solomon free and slowly convinces him to lead him to the diamond. Along the way Archer meets the Maddy Bowen(Jennifer Connelly) a journalist looking to connect big jewelry companies to conflict diamonds. Guns and explosions lead the way to predictable ending.
I'll start with what I think is good about this picture. It has a great central cast. DiCaprio seems like he can have a bad performance lately and Djimon Honsou has a staggering intensity(as usual).This film is not boring and holds its 138 minute run time quite well. The production is quite good as we go through giant action set pieces with helicopters and street shoot outs and the like.
Which brings me to my main problem with the film. Its a film about child soldiers murdering innocent people and villages being massacred all in the name of a shiny rock. With every giant action set piece it becomes less of a dramatic expose and more of a giant Hollywood action picture. Bands of guerrillas attack towns killing the young and old, men and women alike and we never really have the chance to feel the power of it all. The film is more focused on using atrocity to thrill than using it to make a statement.
I'm not saying this film completely skips over all the atrocities in Africa, It does cover them, just not to the dramatic necessity that the events really require.Maybe I went in with the wrong expectations. I guess it never occurred to me to make an action picture out of the suffering of millions of people in Africa.
2/5 "Melodrama in all the wrong places"
2 comments:
your are completely wrong. i strongly disagree. Being from south africa, every point in that movie was covered perfectly. you have no i dea what goes on down there. Half of what you know from news and media and whats being covered is not even 10% of whats happening. so you have no place to say that "villages being massacred all in the name of a shiny rock" its not your place to say that. it happened. and for all your tiny brain knows, is that its still happening now.that shiny rock is on ever womens fucking fingure as they lavishly show it off. the movie did an excellent job at action and violence and discrimination all for a shiny rock because as much as you dont want to believe its reality buds...get over it. this movie wasnt just ment for a dumb action peice its to show you and remind you that the holocaust and rawanda arent the only tragedys in the world. open your spand of imagination you narrow minded peice of amaerican shit.
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