I saw Blood Diamond on Saturday and the impression still lingers (I’m not sure if I want to go as far as to call it still a fresh impression).
The movie opens with the mandatory explanatory sequence. In this case, it’s probably necessary since the movie is set in 1999, Siera Leone. At that time, the country is torn by a civil war, with rebels on one side and government troops on the other. Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a husband and a father of three, falls in between those two forces.
A rebel group attacks his village and takes him to a working camp to dig diamonds. As chance would have it, he soon finds the biggest pink diamond anyone has seen (a 100-karat monster). He manages to hide it when the government troops assault the camp. He’s then taken to prison as an alleged rebel.
While in prison, the rebel camp commander identifies Salomon as the person who dug the biggest diamond in the world, which makes Leo’s character, South African “soldier of fortune” Danny Archer, go after him.
To cut a LONG story short, the film documents their journey back to the camp where they have to find the diamond and also deal with the unwanted attention of rebel commanders and rogue colonels.
That’s exactly one of the problems of the film – it’s length. It often drags its feet and even the action sequences cannot easily get it running back at full speed. The violence is everywhere but it’s not shocking because it usually happens to innocent bystanders.
Finally, I just can’t picture Leo as the next Rambo. In the several action sequences he shoots cold-heartedly at least a dozen people with a hand gun. I don’t wanna see him get hold of a machine gun, in true Rambo style.
One of the reasons I’m harsh about the movie is that it plays in (roughly) the same league as Hotel Rwanda and The Constant Gardener (throw in Lord of War too). Both had better acting, a more intense plot, and a feeling of conclusion (not always the same as happy end).
I think hollywood actors are a bunch of hypocrites. I know Di Caprio champions a lot of environmental causes on his website.I tried to put a message on it about energy saving schemes from the 70’s that were swept under the rug. A pop up told me I was’nt qualified. So much for that. But I’m waiting to see the red carpet section of the academy awards and who walks in weariing designer diamonds. And doesnt care where they came from. We are still a primitive society wearing compressed carbon and putting so much value on it because of the way it reflects light. Where they really belong is on the tips of machine tools since a diamond is the only thing that cuts carbide. And carbide will cut the hardest steel.
I liked Rocky Balboa. It was the best of all the other crap they had in the local movie theater. Its very probable that if a man works hard his whole life he can be fit at 60. Too much Ease and Comfort is what ages us. There are people in states bordering Mongolia who are in their 80’s and carried a grand piano 60 miles for the local king or hetman.In Rocky Balboa at least the actors spoke clearly. No one blended their dialogue and sounded like a chipmonk as many women in movies do today.
Maybe your bloodsugar was low, I thought this movie rocked… no pun intended. Maybe a bit sappy and melodramatic at times. For a Hollywood film it seemed quite genuine in sentiment. Even though I was aware of this situation, it still made my blood boil over the real situation. Still, it’s no Sirianna.