Danny Archer Does Have an Epiphany Danny Archer is a character in the movie Blood diamond. Edward Zwick displays the complete transformation of Archer over the course of the movie, from a greedy anti-hero to a selfless hero who puts others before himself. Archer’s epiphany starts after meeting Solomon Vandy in prison, the local fisherman who found the rare pink diamond. Another person that play a huge role in determining the identity of Archer is Maddy Bowen, the reporter from New York. I will be discussing the specific scenes in which I think Archer starts his transformation into becoming a better person (IMDb.com). Solomon is captured and forced to work in an RUF diamond mine. Soon after, his elementary-school-aged son is also captured. Later he is shown at an RUF camp, being taught with a group of children his age to forget their families, pledge absolute loyalty to the RUF, fire weapons, and to kill without shame.
At the mine, Solomon discovers a remarkably large and valuable pink diamond and buries it for safekeeping. The Sierra Leone army launches a deadly air strike against the rebels and the survivors, including Solomon, are arrested and brought to a jail in the capital. Because of a diamond-smuggling deal gone wrong, Danny Archer ends up in the same jail and learns about Solomon's pink diamond. He arranges for Solomon's release, hoping to get the diamond for himself in return for helping Solomon to find his family. Archer then tracks down Maddy Bowen, an American journalist looking to do a story on blood diamonds, and promises to give her damning information about the world's leading diamond corporation if she helps him find Solomon's family.

After Archer and Vandy meet in prison, the film depicts Archer’s search for the diamond and Vandy’s pursuit for his family. Thereafter, Blood Diamond paints the bloody portrait of Sierra Leone’s civil war of the 1990’s with the film’s most successful moments revolve around the pain undergoing there which the journalist, Bowen, attempts to enlighten America’s ignorant ways through an exposé in order to cause the flow of conflict diamonds. The people back home wouldn’t buy a ring if they knew it cost someone else their hand, which Bowen highlights exemplifying the unknown sacrifice surrounding diamonds and the atrocity that America is yet to be informed upon. No one can ignore the greedy lust for diamonds fuelling Africa’s civil war. The film explores a meaningful theme, whether it’s the conflict diamonds effect on Africa, the hardship of a man’s desire to get his family back or just the painful lifestyle, one can be moved by such factual occurrences in Africa.
Archer starts off by getting Vandy out of jail and offers to help find his family through his connections in return for half the money from selling the diamond. I believe the epiphany begins a few scenes after, around the scene where he asks Bowen to take them to the refugee camp and Vandy is reunited with his family except his son and he ‘‘drops to his knees rattling the wire with his strong hand’’ and screaming in agony (Zwick). Exactly the next scene Archer has a talk with Bowen about how this diamond is the only way Vandy can get out of Sierra Leone with his family and have a better life. He gives Bowen the facts she needs to publish her article with shows that this will be the last time he smuggles a diamond, Archer risks his life by giving the reporter this information. A person might argue that Archer did that for his own benefit but in my opinion I think he is unconsciously doing all this for Vandy. The reason why I believe Archer had an epiphany is because Zwick aimed for the audience to feel sympathy for Archer by adding the scene where he tells Bowen what happened to his parents when he was a little boy. This scene makes the person watching sympathize and give reasons to why he turned out to be an anti-hero, greedy and selfish. The reason he opens up to Bowen is because of Benjamin Kapanay, the owner of a school for former child soldiers, asking him if he thinks people are mostly good. I think that opened Archer’s eyes and made him rethink about his values (IMDb.com). As Vandy and Archer are walking on the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) territory in the quest of getting the buried diamond Vandy changes the path to go find his son, Dia Vandy who was captured by the RUF and is being trained to become one of them, Archer was against the idea of looking or him because he believed that his son was gone but when he say the determination in the eyes of Vandy, he started thinking of a plan. This scene proved that Archer had an epiphany, you can tell that because if it was the old Archer he wouldn’t care about anyone but the diamond, He could not believe that love he has for his son to risk his life like that (Wikimedia Foundation). The two men leave the camp on foot while Bowen boards a plane carrying foreigners out of the conflict zone. After an arduous overnight trek, the men reach the mining camp in a river valley, still under RUF control, where Solomon discovered and buried the large diamond. Here, Solomon is painfully reunited with his son Dia, who refuses to acknowledge him because he has been brainwashed by the rebels. Solomon is also reunited with Captain Poison, who orders him to find the diamond, but the South African mercenary force, also after the diamond, dispatches the RUF rebels in a massive air strike which kills many of the RUF rebels and some of the miners. Amidst the chaos, Solomon kills Poison with a shovel.

Through a deal with Archer, Colonel Coetzee forces Solomon to retrieve the stone. In a desperate battle, Archer kills Coetzee and the other two soldiers with him after realizing that they would have killed both Archer and Solomon upon locating the diamond. At this point Dia holds Archer and Solomon at gunpoint with a pistol, but Solomon manages to convince him to side with them.

As Archer overturns a body to take equipment he realizes he has been shot, but keeps this to himself. Having arranged in advance for a plane to pick him up, he radios to the pilot, who demands that Archer dump Solomon and Dia. Slowly and painfully the group makes its way from the valley towards an airstrip atop a nearby ridge. Archer collapses, unable to climb, and Solomon carries him a little ways before Archer asks Solomon to put him down. Knowing that he is dying, he tells him to take Dia home and gives them the diamond.
Archer stayed behind to distract the rebel to give Vandy and his son enough time to get away. This is where we see Archer turn from the defiant anti-hero into a Transcendent hero whose flaws bring about his demise. Archer has lived a life of violence and greed with no care for anyone else but he has shown the change by giving Vandy the diamond to escape without him. In his last dying moments, Danny Archer lies up on a cliff watching a beautiful sunrise, symbolizing how he is finally at peace even though he is in his last moments.