Blood Diamond

In a few of my past blog entries, I have spoken of the poetry in cinema and the delicate use of metaphors. Last night, I saw a raw and unadorned film; no metaphors, no euphemisms, just the fearfully contorted, bare body of truth that makes us all squirm with unexplainable guilt.

'Blood Diamond' brought to my attention a political situation, I shamefully have to admit, I was unaware of. I have always thought of Africa as a continent blessed with abundant natural resources, lush forests, and sadly, equally cursed with disease and turmoil that has been eating away at its core. 'Blood Diamond' is set in the period of the Sierra Leone Civil War that left an entire nation one of the poorest in the world in 1998. I have seen films that address political unrest, corruption and illegal trades before. What makes 'Blood Diamond' a unique film is that a bias, if any on part of the filmmakers, was almost undetectable. It simply captured each story and delivered it to our attention.

This film delivers the stories of a diamond smuggler, a fisherman and a journalist caught in the tense civil war.

Djimon Hounsou plays the role of fisherman Solomon Vandy whose idyllic life with his family is disrupted by an RUF attack and his son taken away by the rebels as a trainee. While working for the rebels in a diamond mining valley, he finds a rare, pink diamond and conceals it. In a pulsating moment of drama, Vandy is seen by the the rebel captain just before government troops launch an attack.

Leonardo Di Caprio plays Danny Archer, a mercenary who trades arms for diamonds and thus is one of the key players in the 'conflict diamond' equation that funds wars within such nations. The two stories of Vandy and Archer collide in prison when Archer hears the mention of the extraordinary stone that Vandy has possibly buried before his capture by the troops.

Jennifer Connelly in the role of Maddy Bowens, the spirited journalist, is extremely believable and may if I may add quite beautiful sans maek-up. While investigating the illegal diamond trade and covering the war, Bowens meets Archer and their journeys become one.

Above all, this story is about motives. Archer seeks to pay off his debts and leave the continent forever, Vandy wants to find the son he lost to the rebels and Bowens seeks the investigative pieces that make up this drama. This film keeps the audience on their toes as the characters run into government troops, RUF rebels, guerillas and most disturbingly boy-soldiers, at every corner.

Director Edward Zwick nails the extremely difficult task of taming emotion in what could have otherwise been an action thriller. It was imperative that he evoke an emotional response during such a high-power page-turner to make sure he did not lose out on the take home message that needed to be incorporated in the film. Vandy's desperate search for his family, Archer's constant struggle with what he is and what he could be and Bowen's inquisition marred by the bloodshed and corruption around her, made these characters identifiable. The cinematography deftly captures the natural backdrop of Africa without interrupting the film's rousing pace.

During the course of every film, there are what I like to call, 'movie moments'. This film was full of such moments. The script was well written to say the least and made for some very thought provoking dialogue between the characters. The brief appearance by the character of Benjamin, a teacher who runs shelter for the children of war, added ingenuity and guilelessness to a scene so full of strife. An action thriller that provokes sentiments, is rare and at times Zwick did portray what could be interpreted as a historic recount. However, Di Caprio and Hounsou delivered the absolute plausibility of Archer and Vandy's characters and thwarted the possible overdramatization of events.

The candor in this movie hits you rudely in the face on numerous occasions. Vandy asks Bowens if by looking at her coverage of the bloodshed, people in America would come to their aid. "Probably not", she answers plainly and truthfully. For a film that dealt with such a serious issue, humor was surprisingly plentiful. The cynicism in Archer's character and the director's own bitter humor tinged the dialogue. The pertinence of this story in todays' time is brought home with wit during the film when an old man stranded in the middle of a war oddly funded by diamonds, comments, "Let us hope they don't find oil here."

Stories are always made more beautiful and more vital by interpretation. 'Blood Diamond' is the kind of film that shouldn't leave our consciousness when we leave the cinema theatre. Once we are made aware of the facts, what do we do with that knowledge? Introspective questions like these make such films, powerful determinants of our sensitivities as human beings and of the depths of our consciences. Like Benjamin says to Archer, "We are all just people. It is what we do that makes us good or bad."