Blood Diamond

UK Release Date. 26 January 2007
Certification. 15
Running Time. 2 hours 23 mins
Director. Edward Zwick
Cast. Jennifer Connelly, Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Arnold Vosloo.
Rating. 69%

Review.

Edward Zwick may be one of the best filmmakers you’ve never heard of. The Executive Producer of the Emmy award-winning Thirtysomething, Zwick migrated behind the lens to direct films such as Glory, Legends Of The Fall, Courage Under Fire, The Last Samurai and 2007's Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly.

In 1999, Sierra Leone was a country embroiled in civil war. Set against this background of a nation constantly on the verge of explosive violence, Blood Diamond is an enthralling examination of greed and exploitation, and a well-meaning attempt to shine some light on the inherently corrupt conflict diamond trade.

In this struggle, it is difficult to determine which side is worse: the government or the rebel forces. As is often the case, it’s the innocent farmers, fishermen, and villagers caught in between the two rival factions who pay the price. The film is uncompromising in the way it depicts the Sierra Leone conflict - we witness the mass slaughter of innocent nationals as both the government and the rebels mow down men, women and children indiscriminately, and we witness the rebels recruit young boys, indoctrinate them through torture and drug addiction, and turn them into hardened killers. Blood Diamond is as effective in its depiction of the corruption of innocents as it is in showing the harrowing atrocities. As Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Danny Archer, says, "Sometimes I wonder will God ever ever forgive us for what we've done to each other? Then I look around and I realise... ...God left this place a long time ago." A nihilistic viewpoint echoing the sentiment shared by Lieutenant Waters (Bruce Willis) in Antoine Fuqua's Tears Of The Sun (2003), “God already left Africa.”

Blood Diamond is an impressive production. DiCaprio's Danny Archer, a Rhodesian diamond smuggler, is paired with Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), an enslaved Mende fisherman. In the amoral and selfish Archer, DiCaprio expands the reservoirs of darkness that Martin Scorsese unearthed in The Departed. Jennifer Connelly is cast as a hard-nosed foreign correspondent, Maddy Bowen and although her acting is faultless, Connelly's presence leads to a romance that, however understated, simply stores up trouble for later, requiring redemption and emotional closure during an already protracted climax.  

Director Zwick is no stranger to the grandiose and epic, but none of his previous offerings have felt as drawn out as this one. Blood Diamond falls maddeningly short of greatness in the final hour, primarily because of an abundance of subplots that require resolution. And while Blood Diamond includes a number of disturbing political and sociological insights, the film is too simplistic to function as an effective political commentary.