A Day in Paradise

What can I say, Leonardo does the South African accent so well he totally disappears as an actor. Between this movie and “The Departed” which I watched two days ago, my opinion of Di Caprio has totally changed. He has transcended (whatever that is supposed to mean).

Blood Diamond is set in Sierra Leone during the bloody civil war. A fisherman (Djimon Hounsou) finds a pink diamond, and a Diamond Smuggler has to travel with him to retrieve the hidden diamond and save the fisherman’s son.

This movie shows the brutality of the war. It shows the extreme cruelty of the rebels and plight of the child soldiers they recruit, it also shows the foreign army’s involvement in the search for diamonds, as well as the role in western cultures and the massive diamond selling companies.

As you watch this movie, you realize that while it is an amazing character study of all the characters involved, the focal point of the movie is the diamond. This is an expose on the diamond industry and exposes the tactics that they use to keep diamonds in demand and the price as high as it is. For more information about this read the article “Have you ever tried to sell a diamond” by Edward Jay Epstein. The article is over 20 years old, but a very interesting read.

I would give this movie an 8 out of 10. It is very well written and produced. Be warned that the movie is extremely violent, and has many disturbing scenes especially those involving the child soldiers.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 at 1:48 pm and is filed under Movies, Five-Minute-Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.