Movie Review: 'Blood Diamond'

Diamonds are a girl's best friend… or so the song goes. But the brutality and inhumanity displayed during the Civil war of the Sierre Leone during the 1990's is certainly enough to make most women hesitate at calling the sparkling gem best friend. While this is hardly Director Edward Zwick's intention with the film Blood Diamond (starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou), the film does make you think long and hard about that next anniversary gift.

Blood Diamond centers on two main figures, Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), a ex-mercenary who now spends his time smuggling arms for diamonds, and Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) a Mende fisherman who hopes to live vicariously through his intelligent and promising son. Their paths cross when Vandy, who has been separated from his family, finds a large and valuable diamond while working amidst the diamond labor fields where the "conflict diamonds" (a.k.a. blood diamonds, diamonds mined to support a revolutionary war effort) get their name. The stone is so valuable he is left to wonder whether the find is a blessing or a curse in disguise. Archer, journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), and several others also learn of its existence, and what ensues is a race to find Vandy's son, the hidden diamond, and a story which could bring justice to a country enveloped in suffering.

Set against the backdrop of a Sierra Leone torn by civil war, Zwick gives a very detailed and historical account of the genocide and sheer brutality that occurred during the 90's at the hands of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Children are turned into soldiers, blood into diamonds, and diamonds into guns in a perpetual destructive cycle. Zwick gives a raw account of the times and provides a glimpse into the history of a part of the world which most Americans are sheltered from.