BLOOD DIAMOND Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Warner Bros
Grade: B+
Directed by: Edward Zwick
Written By:, Charles Leavitt, story by C. Gaby Mitchell,
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, Djimon Hounsou
Screened at: Tribeca, NYC, 11/30/06
Opens: December 8, 2006 Everyone save for a few Neanderthals in the U.S. knows that if
you have any conscience, you don't buy fur. There has been so
much information from great organizations like PETA about the
evils of that industry that sales have plummeted. But did you
know that you might be committing a politically incorrect act if
you purchase a diamond? Not any diamond, that is, but one
that comes from an area in conflict. While "Blood Diamond" can
hardly be called the kind of film that would attract only serious-
minded news junkies, Edward Zwick's movie does point out how
something that you may have considered politics-free can in fact
be like fur--the product of some serious blood-letting. The way this works, at least as far as this film indicates, is that
diamonds are smuggled from Sierra Leone to Liberia.
Something to do with legality, though everyone knows that
Liberia does not have diamonds. There they are sold to outfits in
Europe such as the diamond merchants of Antwerp in Belgium,
a city that has an annual turnover of diamonds from its
purveyors amounting to twenty-three billion dollars. The money
goes back to West Africa where it is used by rebels to finance
armaments to fight the government. "Blood Diamond" holds the
cynical view that while rebel leaders talk about forming a new,
strong country, they are far more interested in controlling the
natural wealth of their provinces. By natural wealth they are not
referring to the beautiful landscape (and the scenery is indeed
beautiful in those parts of Africa like South Africa, Mozambique,
and Sierra Leone). They mean where there are deposits of oil
and diamonds. What strikes me as strange is this: I can understand how oil is
valuable, how people the world over need this product for
heating and petrol and fixing their squeaky doors. But where
did any woman ever get the idea that a small, shiny stone
around her fourth finger should be worth thousands, even tens
of thousands of dollars? But I digress. "Blood Diamond" is the story of a nasty civil war in
Sierra Leone, the one that made headlines in the U.S. because
of a ghastly custom that the rebels had of chopping off the
hands or arms of people they did not like. The focus is on the
nexus of three disparate individuals. One is a smuggler and a
former mercenary, a white man brought up in what's now
Zimbabwe (a name he does not recognize, calling the country
Rhodesia). Another is a tall, black man with a powerful voice, a
simple fisherman from Sierra Leone's Mende tribe who dotes on
his ten-year-old son, the future doctor. The third is the pretty
one, an American journalist-photographer with ideals, who is
covering the story of the civil war in Sierra Leone and would just
love to uncover the corruption in some part of the European
diamond industry. They are respectively, Danny Archer
(Leonardo DiCaprio), Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), and
Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly). If the three lived in New
York City, they'd never have met. In Sierra Leone,
circumstances bring them together. The simple story takes off when Mr. Vandy, kidnapped by rebel
forces and made to work digging diamonds, hides the biggest
such stone he or anyone else had ever seen by squirreling it
into a patch of sand. While in jail for smuggling diamonds into
the wool of some sheep, Danny Archer learns of the man's
escapade. With the help of the journalist, Maddy Bowen, the
three meet up in rebel territory; Bowen wants a story, Archer
wants the diamond, and Vandy wants to find his family. The dialogue serves principally as a rest between battles,
speaking of which you've got to credit Eduardo Serra's
cinematography of the African landscape, rife with the blasts of
AK-47's, surface-to-air missiles, bazookas, and bombs, with
much of the weaponry in the hands of kids of about twelve.
(The epilogue tells us that there are now 200,000 child soldiers
in Africa, giving them some experience simply not available to
burger flippers in this country.) Maddy and Danny are, at first,
hostile; the latter calling the reporter naive, while the former
considers Danny to be without a soul. Much of the action finds
Danny and Solomon racing about, usually to escape the rebels
who come upon villages suddenly in their humvees shooting
everything that moves. More often than not, Danny and
Solomon do not see eye to eye, a circumstances that Solomon
makes clear in a voice that could challenge the power of the
MGM lion, "I am not your partner." While Mr. Serra ponders the possibility of a guild awards for his
awesome photography, director Zwick hopes for recognition as
a man in his element. He is best known for battle scenes with
his 1989 movie "Glory" (about the first all-black regiment in the
U.S. Civil War), and "The Last Samurai" (Western guy
embraces the samurai culture while training Japanese soldiers).
He has done well here, evoking terrific performances
particularly from Honsou and Di Caprio, and is helped mightily
by Tim Monich's efforts as dialogue coach, keeping Mr. Di
Caprio into his southern African accent for the most part–though
from time to time that fades out. This is not the picture to attend if you want scintillating dialogue
but one which mirrors the landscape and battle scenes of Kevin
MacDonald's "The Last King of Scotland." The pic features of a
cast of hundreds of regular Africans going about their business
of selling garments and running from rebels. The battles are
noisy and realistic, enough to please the most avid connoisseur
of such activity. By the way, if you call people from Liberia
Liberians, what do you call someone from Sierra Leone? Rated R. 133 minutes 2006 by Harvey Karten
harveycritic@cs.com Member: NY Film Critics Online | 
