Blood Diamond

Edward Zwick has made a career out of directing socially conscious action adventures. His latest, Blood Diamond, takes place in Sierra Leone during 1999 when conflict diamonds made up a reported 15% of all diamonds in trade (that number has since decreased due to legislation described in the film). Zwick’s strategy here is to soften the blow of his moral outrage with high octane explosiveness. Those looking for a social message will see through the façade and into Zwick’s bleeding heart. However, it seems to me that it would also be quite easy to watch Blood Diamond and walk away with no greater feeling than one would have in a less politically oriented action film. I’m guessing Zwick’s hope is that at least some of his agenda will seep into the minds of these less inspective viewers and create a mass awareness that could not be accomplished with a little seen art house film on the subject.

Leonard DiCaprio is mostly good here as Daniel Archer, a drug smuggler with a tendency to lose his temper and a dark past that has left him morally bankrupt. Archer sees a major financial opportunity when meet Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a man forced to work the diamond mines who discovers a large and rare diamond. The scheming Archer then goes on to convince Vandy into a partnership and the two proceed to go after the diamond (which Vandy hid from his murderous rebel overseers) with the help of a well connected journalist named Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly).

The greatest strength of the film is not so much its political message (which is quite blunt and clear throughout), but the way it crafts complex characters and murky situations that mirror those of real lives in the real world. There’s a triangle manipulation set up between the three characters that’s delicate and vicious all at once. They are all using each other, but unexpectedly genuine bonds form between the them that threaten their ability to execute planned betrayals. More importantly, the film examines closely the motives of each of these three people. It would have been easy to portray Vandy as the sole victim here and turn Archer and Bowen into one dimensional exploitatious profiteers. Instead Zwick gets to the heart of their motives and ensures that they have solid reasons for their actions. It really is a study in the gray areas of morality and the ways in which a persistently violent situation can tear into people’s sense of humanity.

The film’s action sequences are distractingly common, but Zwick uses them to simultaneously thrill his audience and portray the political chaos of the nation at this time. However, during many of its chase sequences and gunfights, the film just seems to dip too far into the pool of action movie clichés. Regardless, Zwick has molded something bold and original here. It can be tedious in its length and exhausting in its excessive need for spectacle, but for the most part it is an enjoyable and fascinating look into a horrific time in our recent history.

Grade: B+