«BLOOD DIAMOND» - Film review.

Blood Diamond is an Oscar-nominated political war thriller movie from 2006 directed by Edward Zwick. The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly, Kagiso Kuypers and Stephen Collins.
The movie is set during the Sierra Leone Civil War, from 1996 to 2001. We get introduced to the main characters, Danny Archer and Solomon Vandy, both living in Sierra Leone. Solomon gets kidnapped by the RUF (Revolutionary United Front). He got separated from his family, and his son got kidnapped too, and turned into a child-soldier. Solomon got sent to work as a slave in the diamond mines. If the slaves found any diamonds, the RUF would use the diamonds to buy military weapons. One day Solomon found a big shiny diamond, and he tried to hide it, but one of the RUF-soldiers caught him hiding it and Solomon got arrested, but the diamond stayed hidden. Behind bars, Solomon met Danny Archer, who had been arrested for diamond-smuggling. Danny found out about Solomon’s hidden diamond, and he offers to help Solomon finding his family in-trade for the diamond.
Finding the diamond, and getting Solomon’s family back is the main-conflict in the movie. Throughout the movie we follow the main characters, Solomon and Danny. Salomon is introduced as a normal and happy family-father with a normal life. This changes when he gets kidnapped by the RUF. Salomon gets more and more angry and unstable during his time away from his family. He wants the best for his family and is willing to sacrifice anything for them. He would easily trade his family for the million-dollar-worth diamond he found. At the end, he finally gets his family back after many painful and horrible weeks.
Danny Archer is introduced as a very primitive and arrogant guy. He has a sad past, including both of his parents getting killed. He is a smuggler, and he wants the diamond found by Solomon, so he can be rich and leave Africa for good. During the movie Solomon meets a journalist, Maddy Bowen. Throughout the movie we, as viewers, notice a romantic spark between them. At the end of the movie, Danny puts his own life at risk to protect and save Solomon and Solomon’s son, Dia.

The mood and atmosphere of the film can sometimes be very different. There are sad and horror filled moments, sometimes funny jokes are inserted. As a viewer, you always feel the fear and the perception. The characters are “walking on ice” throughout the movie, which means you will never know what happens next or who “the target” will be. The movies language is most of all English, and sometimes Afrikaans. Most of the characters are speaking English with an African accent, and this is making the movie more realistic.
There are many themes in this movie. First of all, it’s about how awful and horrific people can treat each other because of power and money. We see in this movie that the RUF is chopping of little children’s hands so that they can’t vote. Here, we see that human rights are also a theme, including selfishness and power. How far are people willing to go for a decent life? There is also killing, bombing and gun-firing during the movie. People take the good and joy for granted and that they use other people to do things they never would have done on their own.
I like this movie very much, and I recommend it to everybody over 15 years old. The movie is based on something horrible and illegal that is actually happening today. “Conflict diamonds” is still happening today, and it is important that people get an insight of what’s really happening in this part of the world. I think this movie describes “conflict diamonds” very good and how horrific it is. It is a very well done movie, and it has almost gotten just positive feedbacks.