Review: Blood Diamond

Edward Zwick, director of Blood Diamond attempts to create a compelling film about 1999 Sierra Leone when the country is embroiled in a brutal African civil war. A film which holds potential for great acclaim falls victim to its own slow pacing.

Initially, his story focuses on the enormous socio-political effects the war has on its inhabitants. The sides are so bound on fighting against each other the audience often cannot tell which is worse. All sides are blurred by psychological and carnal damage. Zwick also explores the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) that recruits children and brainwashes them into becoming young soldiers for their cause. In their war, the children only learn to kill. Right and wrong are meaningless.

Zwick entangles Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), and Maddy Brown (Jennifer Connelly) together in a tense story about blood diamonds, civil war, family, and redemption. The story begins with Solomon taking his young son, Dia to school one day. They run into trouble along the way. The RUF attacks their village and captures Solomon to harvest diamonds for them along with others. His wife and children barely escape the massacred town. One day, Solomon finds a huge pink diamond and buries it in the ground just before the government raids the RUF and throws them all in prison. Archer, also in prison spots Solomon and becomes interested in his latest find.

Solomon’s only concern is to find his family. Archer is only determined to get a hold of that rare pink diamond. They strike a deal. Archer tells Solomon he will help him find his family as long as he leads Archer to the buried diamond. Archer convinces Maddy to help him look in a database for Solomon’s family. Maddy’s payoff is information for an expose story telling her how blood diamonds are laundered, bought, cleaned and sold into the open market. In particular, Maddy wants to know how deep the London diamond merchants are implicated in the process.

Within the first hour or so, the film is extremely slow paced. The film requires a great deal of patience from the audience. Zwick, no stranger to action or adventure films, could have improved this movie by speeding up the schematic points. Unfortunately, the audience will begin to feel the length of the film quickly.

Zwick portrays Sierra Leone as a country fighting through cruel horrors on a daily basis. The massive onslaught of human carnage is not spared on the audience. The government and rebels murder men, women and children without any regret or remorse. The constant recruiting of young boys into soldiers through drugs, brainwashing, ideological indoctrinating teaching, and violence is difficult to watch but harshly honest.

As a viewer, Blood Diamond is an effective depiction of Sierra Leone and its corruption, warring forces, and psychological and catastrophic hell which many innocent bystanders have needlessly endured. Equally important, this film gives viewers a close look at the “real” price of diamonds.

Director Edward Zwick also directed Glory and The Last Samurai.

Blood Diamond

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