Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures		Blood Diamond
In his last few films, I have loved what DiCaprio has done with his characters, and the films themselves have been incredible; however, when I saw the previews for Blood Diamond, I was somewhat upset and taken aback. Blood Diamond looked to be a boring journey into Africa with a lame and uninteresting plot about diamonds and saving a man’s son; but, luckily, not only was this movie highly entertaining.  As it turns out, there was much more to it than just that. In the majority of DiCaprio’s movies, he adopts quite an affinity for characters with accents. Now, not all these accents have been great, but they have improved drastically with each movie he has done and Blood is a fine example. This time, Leo takes on the challenge of the South African accent which he pulls off with mesmerizing perfection including a phenomenal scene in which he bargains with an African man in some native tongue (no way I could tell you what the hell it was).  Now, for those of you who missed The Departed and didn’t get to see Leo kick ass, don’t worry, he kicks plenty in this one. DiCaprio is finally on the verge of becoming an actor that men can finally get into instead of that young heart-throb every guy hated in Titanic. Blood Diamond is a film that fits well amongst the rest of director Edward Zwick’s repertoire. He seems to choose films with a profound social message, usually dealing with other cultures and often ends up turning itself upon the white man while pointing a condemning finger.  Blood Diamond is essentially about the illegal diamond trade that goes on in Africa and follows two main characters. The first of these two characters is Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) who lives in an African village with his wife and three children. On a normal day while he is walking his son to school, the village is attacked by rebels who kill a majority of the people and take those who they believe can mine diamonds. Solomon’s family gets away but he is captured. While in captivity, he gets a chance to steal a diamond, a large one, but it is discovered that he has taken it by the leader during a raid on the camp and Solomon buries it so that he can retrieve it later. The other main character is Danny Archer, (Dicaprio) a South African man who specializes in smuggling diamonds across the border. During one of his treks, he is stopped and arrested. In jail, he comes across Solomon Vandy who was taken there after the raid and he overhears that Solomon has a big diamond. Archer, after getting out of jail takes it upon himself to retrieve the diamond with Solomon’s help, although Solomon is opposed to this. Now, because his family was placed in captivity while they were in jail, and his son kidnapped by the rebels, Archer is able to persuade him that he can help him get his family back in return for the diamond. With the help of Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), a reporter looking for a story involving the diamond smuggling scandals, they journey into the heart of Africa to retrieve the diamond and save Solomon’s family.  Despite being very well directed and having beautiful cinematography, the acting is just as good. Aside from DiCaprio, there is the always stunningly great Jennifer Connelly.  Predictably, Hollywood always needs a love interest.  So, if you are one of those wily filmgoers who doesn’t believe in all of those stereotypic “strangers meet / immediately fall in love / let’s have sex” Hollywood romances, you will like the way Zwick incorporated Connelly as a love interest in this film.  The scenes between Leo and Jennifer are beautifully manipulated to make you believe their relationship and its development. The only other lead role in this movie falls to Djimon Hounsou whose performance surprised me quite a bit. Blood Diamond is definitely the first movie in which I have seen him dominate the screen and carry many an emotional scene. His relationship with his son is one of the main emotive story elements, and it is beautifully brought to life by both him and the boy who plays his son. So, if you thought the previews were bad and you thought this movie looked boring, try and put all that aside.  I find that when I have low expectations for a film, it often turns out to surpass those expectations and I end up really enjoying it. That was definitely the case with Blood Diamond, and I definitely recommend it. © Neal Todnem 2006
Running Time:	138 minutes
Release Date:	December 8th, 2006 (wide)
MPAA Rating:	R (strong violence and language)
Distributors:	Warner Bros. Pictures