You might want to think again before buying an expensive diamond ring or jeweled necklace -- At least, that seems to be the overall message in Blood Diamond.
The movie follows three people whose lives become intertwined in Sierra Leone, a country in Africa plagued by violence and greed for diamonds.
Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a weapons trader who swaps arms for Sierra Leone's conflict diamonds. The diamonds are then smuggled into Liberia and sold to other countries.
In the middle of one of the smuggling expeditions, Archer is caught and thrown in prison. While there, he comes across Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), kidnapped by the Revolutionary United Force (RUF) rebel group, and torn away from his family. He was jailed with other RUF members and forced laborers.
Archer learns that Vandy has found an extremely large and valuable diamond while working for the RUF and that he buried the diamond somewhere to keep it from them. After pulling some strings, the two leave the prison and eventually make an agreement -- if Vandy shows Archer where the diamond is, Archer will bring Vandy's family back together.
Archer later meets American journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), who proves to be a valuable help to the pair, though she initially appears to only be interested in getting a good story out of Archer.
The movie would make anyone feel terrible for the situation and the people living in Sierra Leone. There are several scenes showing young boys shooting innocent people, families separated and millions living in refugee camps.
I don't know much about Sierra Leone, so I'm not sure if this is an accurate portrayal, but the filmmakers certainly get the message across that buying a diamond originally from this country probably cost a handful of lives. Except for the large number of bullet wounds, the filmmakers kept gore to a minimum, which helped the story out. If I were grossed out by severed limbs, I wouldn't be able to enjoy the story as much.
The story had its peak in the last 30 minutes or so of the lengthy film. This is when Archer's transformation from a selfish trader to a caring human being is complete, and we see Vandy's loyalty to Archer despite the fact that Archer was using him for his own means during most of the movie.
DiCaprio uses an accent throughout the movie since his character is from an African country. This is the only part of the movie that bothered me. While he pulled it off relatively well, the accent was a little distracting.
All-in-all, Blood Diamond was an entertaining way to remind America that there is a world outside of the culture we're all familiar with. Grade: B+
