Blood Diamond

Blood Diamond ***

I have a little theory about "Blood Diamond" that I've been developing. It also is a little explanation to myself about what went wrong with it, especially in the third act. I have a feeling that when originally thought up this was supposed to be a deep and meaningful film about the African diamond trade, but was ruined in rewrites by the Hollywood executives who had no way to market such a film. Either that or the film makers wanted the viewer to be exposed to the message they are trying to make about the diamond trade, and in order to get people to see it, needed to fill it up with more action-guns, explosions, chases, etc-to interest the masses. Either way, "Blood Diamond" has the right story and is pretty interesting, but towards the end it shifts gears from this story I was getting into, and becomes another dull Hollywood action flick, with one of the most predictable and tacked on endings that I have ever seen. It's worth seeing, and if you leave shortly after the hour and forty five minute mark and create your own ending on the trip home, it's probably even better.

"Blood Diamond" takes place in 1999 in Africa, and Danny Archer is one of the best diamond smugglers around. In the know with such top people as Colonel Coetzee, Danny knows how to smuggle diamonds to his employer in London, Van de Kamp. Danny is the type of person that only cares about himself, and he is fully aware of the fact that children are being sold into slave labor to find the diamonds. He sees these children as helpful instead of seeing how terrible this really is. We then meet Solomon Vandy, another inhabitant of the country whose village was recently attacked by rebels. Solomon was out when he found a giant red diamond. Sensing that whatever this diamond is is worth a lot of money, Solomon finds a way to hide it, and in a way is saved by the fact that his village is being overrun-it gives him a chance to bury it. His wife Jassie, and his son Dia(like DIAmond, get it), are taken, and Solomon is eventually thrown in jail. While in prison he meets Danny, and Danny finds out through the grapevine that Solomon has find a diamond which could make him rich, and finally give him the chance to get out of Africa. Danny proposes to Solomon that if Solomon helps to relocate the diamond, Danny will help Solomon locate his family. Sadly, and not to Solomon's knowledge, but the rebels have taken Dia and have brainwashed him into thinking like the other child soldiers(and I'll be the first to say that some of the scenes with these child soldiers are quite horrifying). Danny finally gets in the know with Maddy, an American photojournalist who needs names and facts in order to report a worthy story on the "blood diamond" trade-a phrase which she coins herself. So they all hunt out for the diamond, all with their own person agendas and needs, while being stalked by the rebels who are looking for blood----diamonds.

"Blood Diamond" is the third in the unofficial trilogy of films that take place in South Africa. It is miles away from the horrifying and creepy "The Last King of Scotland," and ends up falling in the same range as something like "Catch a Fire." In fact, come to think of it, I had the same problem with "Catch a Fire" as I do with this film. They both have promising set ups, and then turn into standard thrillers by the end. "Blood Diamond" has a lot of interesting things about this diamond trade. I personally knew nothing about it, and was shocked to see how horrible it was. To go from zero knowledge to horrified is quite a big step. Leonardo DiCaprio isn't my favorite actor in the world, and after really surprising me in "The Departed" he returns to mediocre form, this time sporting an accent that is almost as bad as Al Pacino's in "Scarface." And I don't even know how he manged to deliver the line-"In America it's bling bling, but over here it's bling-bang." How anybody could have found that clever is beyond me. Once again, DiCaprio is defeated by somebody else in the cast, and this time it's Djimon Hounsou who played Solomon. I've seen him in many movies past and was surprised to see how powerful his performance was. He manages to play a big tough brute with a lot of heart in his quest to get his treasured son back. Sadly he is killed by DiCaprio in the marketing. Even look at the picture of the poster. Look how big Leo's face is, and how small Hounsou's is. He is practical hidden in the background. Jennifer Connelly continues her streak of me wondering how she possibly once won an Oscar. Beautiful here, but not very good.

The script for "Blood Diamond" was obviously rewritten. What was once a probably deep and meaningful study of the diamond trade has been reduced to Hollywood dribble, but shades of that first draft do shine through. Some of the images, and even scenes made me very uncomfortable-including one where one of the child soldiers dabbles in drugs. The shot was creepy and unnatural-a little boy being injected with heroin. Horrible. The ending is obvious, and everything came far too easy for my taste. The last ten minutes was extremely tacked on, and I have the feeling that even the original ending was somewhat more depressing and not upbeat. "Blood Diamond" is has an entertaining and very interesting and upsetting first two acts, but by the end it's your standard Hollywood action film, and one where my attention went elsewhere. It was actually a disappointing end to what was a decent flick. In the end, though, I can recommend it, but it wouldn't be at the top of my list.