How many lives
does that diamond ring cost? Edward Zwick attempts to answer
this question in his latest political action movie, Blood
Diamond. Shedding some light on the aptly-named "conflict
diamond" trade in Central Africa, the film depicts the
human impact of the greed and violence that surround the issue.
The diamond-fueled civil war in Sierra Leone received media
attention earlier in the year in Kanye West's "Diamonds"
video, but like West's effort, Blood Diamond falls
short of showing the true depth and scope of the situation.
Nonetheless, it is a well-crafted movie with many effective
elements, and shouldn't be harshly judged simply because it
may not take as liberal a stance on the situation as I myself
do, since this can hardly be expected of a mainstream Hollywood
picture like this. Blood Diamonds is simply a different
type of movie than last year's similar The Constant Gardener.
The movie tells
the story of an African farmer, played by Djimon Hounsou,
whose family is broken apart when the rebel militia destroys
his hometown and takes him into slavery to mine for diamonds.
While mining, he discovers a diamond large enough to buy himself
and his family safe passage out of the war-torn region to
safety. The diamond catches the attention of Danny Archer,
a Rhodesian diamond smuggler and arms dealer, played complete
with accent by Leonardo DiCaprio. The two men venture into
the very heart of the conflict to retrieve the jewel, and
trade their story to an American journalist (Jennifer Connelly)
for her help in getting them there.
With a cast like
this, one can expect only the best performances, and the stars
didn't let me down. But as powerful as all three actors are
and were in the film, their performances don't stand out above
their established work. DiCaprio and Connelly have very little
chemistry, which they desperately need to make their romantic
story work, and at the end, I was disappointed they weren't
able to have really made it click. They were effective, however,
in counterbalancing one another: Leo's cynicism off Connelly's
idealism. As for their individual roles, each does an excellent
job, but The Aviator, In America, and House
of Sand and Fog all overshadow the performances we see
here.
I had difficulty
getting into the characters on a script level more than performance.
Namely that of Danny Archer. He is, I think, meant to be our
protagonist, but I saw no change in him throughout the story,
and found him unsympathetic throughout. He is simply a person
driven by his own greed, as much a part of the problem as
the people he's supposedly fighting against. It's impossible
to overlook his selfishness when the film is set against a
war driven by the selfishness of others. As for character
growth, he only appears to change at the end of the film,
when he really has no other choice.
Edward Zwick has
directed a number of films that have the same feeling behind
them, and this is another in that group. He helms the film
and steers it with the same intensity that characterized
Glory, Courage Under Fire, and The Siege,
but the film as a whole disappoints this intensity, much like
his most recent film, The Last Samurai.
In all, Blood
Diamond is an important film, not so much for the execution
of any of its elements, but for the content of its story. The
conflict in Central Africa and the diamond market's role in
this has been covered very little in the Western media, and
it is good to see so much attention directed towards it now.
Unfortunately, the film is more an action film than a political
statement, despite the post-scripts at the end encouraging consumers
to demand non-conflict diamonds. It's an enjoyable two hours
that may awaken you if you aren't up on the situation there,
but if you are, it might just make you upset.
