Film: Blood Diamond
Genre: Drama
Release Date: December 8th, 2006
Distributor: Warner Bros.
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 2 hrs. 18 min.
Review by Sirus

Starring:
Leonardo DiCaprio
Djimon Hounsou
Kagiso Kuypers

A boy named Dio (Kagiso Kuypers) is lying on the floor of a hut in his Mende Village. His father is waking him up because it’s time for school. His father Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) has high hopes for the boy. “Someday you will be a doctor,” Dio’s father tells him. It is later in the day now and the boy is walking home with his father. Solomon asks Dio what he learned in school today. His son tells him that he learned their town of Mende was meant to be a utopia, meaning that after the war is over the land will be paradise. Before Solomon can finish praising his son, the two see two jeeps full of men coming towards them. They drop everything and run when they realize that the jeeps carry the rebels.

As they run towards their village, Solomon tells Dio to hide behind a car as he rushes towards the village to make sure his wife and other children are safe. Before Solomon is able to escape with his family, he gets captured by the rebels and taken off to work in the diamond mines. While in the diamond mines, Solomon digs up a large blood diamond about the size of a bird egg. Solomon is just about to escape with the diamond when the military shows up and starts shooting. Unable to do anything else, Solomon buries the diamond right before he is captured and brought to jail.

At the same time, we have Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), a diamond smuggler who helps the rebels get their diamonds across the border to another country where they are able to sell them legally. Danny gets caught by the police at the border between countries where the customs official finds the hidden diamonds Danny is trying to transport. Danny is sent to prison where he meets Solomon. Danny hears about the diamond Solomon found while in prison and decides that if he can get his hands on the diamond, it will be his ticket out of Africa. The story unfolds as Danny meets many people on all sides of the conflict with contacts everywhere.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Kagiso Kuypers, and Djimon Hounsou play powerful and believable roles. DiCaprio portrays Danny like the heartless battle worn smuggler he is while at the same time showing an emotional side. DiCaprio’s African accent is really well done and very believable. Djimon Hounsou does a great job as the vengeful father who just wants to live with his family. Kagaiso Kuypers plays the kid who gets taken in by the resistance and trained to kill. The transformation from carefree schoolboy to cold heartless killer is stark and believable.

The powerful performances by these and the rest of the cast serve the movie by bringing the powerful emotions to life. The movie has violence that is disturbing and scenes that are moving almost to tears. “Blood Diamond” manages to portray a message through everything even including a well done rap song at the end to bring it all together. Everything mentioned about “Blood Diamond” makes it one of the most memorable movies of the year. Add in its beautiful soundtrack by James Newton Howard and we have here a masterpiece. “Blood Diamond” is a must see for action fans, fans of Edward Zwick, fans of Leonardo DiCaprio, and anyone who can sense the powerful acting of these men from the trailer. “Blood Diamond” is highly recommended. Edward Zwick does it again.

Final Score: 5/5 stars