In Blood Diamond Leonardo DiCaprio plays an African diamond smuggler who is interested in this big rock Djimon Hounsou has been hiding. Jennifer Connelly plays an American journalist trying to uncover the connection between this big European diamond empire and African conflict diamonds.
The movie had its good moments, but it was sadly mediocre. I think Manohla nailed it in the head: "If films were judged solely by their good intentions, this one would be best in show."
A subject of this magnitude deserved a better movie, but still, I think the message was delivered. We see the unbelievable suffering people in Africa are going through because of the interest that people of rich nations have on diamonds.
The movie has enough footage of human suffering to make you think twice before buying a diamond. If you want to get more serious about the issue, head over to the UN site on conflict diamonds. Sad, sad world.
All right, now that I pointed to the seriousness of the issue (it really is serious, folks), let me tone it all down by saying that that Djimon Hounsou is one hot man. Initially, I felt uncomfortable, self-conscious and shallow appreciating Djimon's hotness on a screen full of suffering of the worst kind. Kids in arms, screaming moms being parted from their kids. Awful. 
But once you see how the movie shamelessly and poorly ties-in a little romance between DiCaprio and Connelly, you give up on taking the movie that seriously. I bet you won't complain about the many shirtless scenes with Djimon under the hot African sun; and they threw in a little shirtless DiCaprio too.
But no gay content. Damn it.
Just FYI, I am at the Miami airport now, and will be off to Brazil in a couple of hours. I will be posting from there the next few days!
Sorry Augusto, but I can't agree with you about your rating for this movie. It's much better than Mediocre Movie.
Blood Diamond is a great movie and a strong candidate for the Best Movie category.
I really like this kind of movie...It makes me think about the world and mankind.
Such a great opportunity to understand how explored Africa is by the rich countries; and how the acts from famous people (Angelina Jolie, Danny Glover, Bono, Bill Gates, Oprah, Laurence Fishburne, Richard Gere, etc) are important to help the continent and its inhabitants. Well, there are some people that "save" only one child, rescuing them from the poverty and forgetting all the rest. (I do prefer not to say names, or I'll be banished from QB LOL).
Hugs and have a nice week!
Posted by: marcus | Jan 14, 2007 at 10:13 PM
Yeah...I bet NONE of those UN bureaucrats has any diamonds. NONE!
Posted by: Myackie | Dec 19, 2006 at 03:21 PM