BLOOD DIAMOND
US, 2006, 138 minutes, Colour.
Leonardo di Caprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly, Arnold Vosloo, David Harewood, Basil Wallace, Jimi Mystery, Michael Sheen, Marius Weyers, Stephen Collins.
Directed by Edward Zwick.
The title is quite evocative. It sounds like a violent story as well as a story of greed. And it is.
The film is principally set in Sierra Leone in the recent past. It is 1999. The country is in the turmoil of civil war. International diamond companies are interested in exploiting the diamond fields and rebels want to exploit the diamond trade so that they can buy arms. The jewels at the centre of this struggle are called ‘conflict diamonds’. There was a movement to ban or curtail this trade for weapons – which, the film tells us at the end, was signed by forty countries in 2003.
Blood Diamond is an action thriller with a message – or several messages.
The principal message is that customers in search of diamonds, even for an engagement ring, need to check whether the stones are the product of social injustice and exploitation. The second message is the obvious one that there are greedy smugglers as well as industrialists and corporations ready to bypass laws and conventions.
The third and underlying message is about the status of Africa and the results of the colonial era that has left in its wake, civil wars and tribal conflicts, massacres, oppression and the dismaying phenomenon of the abduction of children and brainwashing them into becoming fanatical soldiers. This is quite an agenda for an action film starring Leonardo di Caprio.
Di Caprio appears as a bitter thirty year old mercenary, born in Rhodesia where his parents were brutally murdered, and who has seen action in Angola and South Africa. With the end of apartheid and limited fields of action, he has become involved in diamonds for arms smuggling between Sierra Leone and Liberia. Arrested, he overhears information from a rebel confronting a fisherman (Djimon Hounsou) who had been forced into mining and who had hidden a blood diamond. This could be his answer for a new life.
When he encounters a strong-minded American journalist (Jennifer Connolly), he travels with her and the fisherman to find the diamond. Along the way, they encounter ambushes, the child soldiers, a kind teacher trying to rehabilitate the young abductees, and the mercenary colonel who wants the diamond.
The action sequences are staged with power and flair.
The journey becomes a journey of conscience for the young man. He is challenged by the journalist who wants to write to change attitudes. He is especially challenged by the fisherman whose son has been taken by the rebels and has become a bitter boy, despising and confronting his father.
Films appeal to the emotions and heart more than to the mind and the head. Some tough American commentators have dismissed Blood Diamond as a ‘Liberal Lefty’s dream’. They say that hard-headed policies are needed for development in Africa and the facing of economic necessities. The film, on the other hand, wants to focus on the human cost, enslavement, brutality and murder and exploitation by power-hungry authorities in both the developed and developing worlds. It wants audiences to be moved by people in desperate plight, the powerless, and the bringing down of the exploiters, the powerful.
Djimon Hounsou has a strong reputation in a variety of roles (Amistad, Gladiator, In America , Constantine) and he is impressive here. Leonardo di Caprio proves again that he is a fine actor who can immerse himself in all kinds of roles, from romantic heartthrob in Romeo and Juliet and Titanic to comedy in Catch Me if You Can, to gangster and police roles for Martin Scorsese. Here he shows how he can be an action star and, more deeply, portray a man on a conscience journey from ruthless to compassionate to self-sacrificing.
1.An exciting thriller? Action adventure? Message film? A message via the thriller conventions?
2.The portrait of Africa at the beginning of the 21st century? The impact of colonialism, the aftermath of colonialism, national independence, the civil wars? African history in the 20th century? The world of big business, exploitation, global corporations? Wars and arms deals, the use of diamonds to buy weapons? The use of children as soldiers? The role of the United Nations? How well did the screenplay blend all these elements?
3.Audience response to the thriller aspects, the excitement? The trek and the quest for the diamond? Issues of justice? Hearts and minds responding to the thriller as well as the issues?
4.The African locations, the use of South Africa and Mozambique for Sierra Leone, for Liberia? Authentic, the mountain scenery, the rivers? The towns and cities? The atmospheric score?
5.The title and its meaning, the conflict diamonds, the literal Blood Diamond? Symbolic?
6.The international setting, the political discussions, the companies and their representatives, the exploitation? The cover-ups? The deals behind the scenes? The meeting, the speeches? The issue of diamonds for arms? The title of conflict diamonds? The ending, Solomon and his setting up the executives, the photographs, the media? The expose? The final information about the treaty concerning diamonds and weapons?
7.Leonardo di Caprio as Danny Archer, thirty-year-old, his background of Rhodesia, growing up in the 1970s and experiencing independence, the shocking deaths and brutality meted out to his mother and father? Deaths? The patronage of the colonel? His becoming a mercenary, fighting in Angola? The effect of peace and the end of apartheid? The mercenary, his motivations? Fearless? His contacts, going into Liberia, coming on the plane, confronting the Africans, getting the diamonds, putting pressure on the deceiving African, the trek, his arrest, in jail, hearing the information about the Blood Diamond? His connection and getting Solomon out of jail? His freedom and pursuing the Blood Diamond? The colonel and his assistant, his being called to account for the failure, his visit to South Africa? His plan for the diamond?
8.The contrast with Solomon, the life of the Mende tribesmen, fishing, idyllic, with his son, the family happiness, the boy going to school? The invasion of the rebels, he and his son on the way back, the violence, the brutality of the attack, the slaughter, the rape, the burning? The taking of the children for mercenaries? Solomon and his being taken to mine diamonds in the river? The overseers, the shooting of anyone who stole a diamond? Solomon and his discovery of the Blood Diamond, his hiding it, the official seeing him – and knowing? The invasion of the troops, Solomon and his arrest, going to jail? The confrontation with the authority in the jail? His being freed – going to find the diamond, wanting his son?
9.The rebels, their authority, their weapons, their brutality, the executions, the chopping off of hands, the decision to send able men to mine the diamonds? The children as mercenaries? The scenes of training the children, the weapons, the brainwashing, turning them into mini-adults, their playing cards, drinking, being injected with drugs? Trained to be vicious? Turning against their families, alternate father figures? Seeing them in action, shootings at the roadblocks, the attacks with the other soldiers?
10.Danny, his meeting Maddy, their talk, the interaction, her background, Bosnia and other stories? Always having adventure? Her interest, investigations? Meeting Danny again, becoming more attached to him? His promise of documents? Her offering a cover for Danny and for Solomon as the cameraman for their travels?
11.The attack in the city, the arms and the invasion, the deaths? Danny and his survival? Solomon? Drawing up the plan, going on the trek, Solomon as the cameraman, his being unwilling, wanting his son, deciding to go? The media junket, the dangers, the roadblocks, the attacks, the vehicles crashing? The car chase and Danny driving, the crash in the bush?
12.The bonds between Danny and Solomon, the motivations, dividing the money from the diamond? Maddy and her quest? The clashes, going through the bush, surviving in the bush?
13.The roadblock, running the roadblock, meeting Benjamin, his help, his school, the rehabilitation of the soldiers, their trust in him? His being wounded, Danny and Maddy saving him?
14.The dangers in the trek, Solomon seeing his son and calling out, the dangers for Danny? The continued quest? The effect on Danny, changing his motivation?
15.Going to the river, watching the miners, Solomon seeing Danny and going into the camp, the troops, the attack? Danny phoning, the helicopter coming? Solomon and his rescue of his son? Danny and the colonel, the confrontation, the shooting? Danny wounded?
16.Danny organising Solomon’s escape with his son, Solomon and his trying to persuade his son who he was, to draw him back to himself? Danny and his wound, climbing the mountain, phoning Maddy, arranging for the plane and Solomon’s rescue? His death? His experience, dying with a good conscience?
17.The transition to London, Solomon and his dealing with the executives, the buying of the diamonds, the set-up, the photos, the media expose? His being well dressed, going to the meeting, Maddy present, his speech and the applause?
18.The final information about the treaty and the agreement about money for arms? Conflict diamonds?
