We saw this film last night and I just wanted to say that everyone should go and see it. It is the best film I have seen in a long time, and we see a couple of movies a week.
Leonardo DiCaprio acts spectacularly...right down the absolutely perfect rhodesian accent (I have a friend originally from Rhodesia, she sounds exactly the same even to the nuances and emphasis in the voice). Djimon Hounsou is also spectacular in this movie. They say that both will have an Oscar nomination for their parts.
People would probably venture to say it was bad parenting taking my 11 and 12 year old child to this movie (it is rated 14A up here), however I felt it was important to help them understand why as long as they can remember their mother has insisted that no one buy her diamonds, and refuses to wear any diamonds (and gold, but that's another story..
). It was violent, yes...but it is 'truth violence', not gratuitous violence...so I rationalize that it is important for my children to really understand what goes on in other parts of the world in order to make them understand how lucky they are as well as establish an international conscience in them that will hopefully grow as they do and help them to become allies in trying to stop the atrocities in this world.
The film is poignant....I cried various times throughout. In case you don't know the story of this movie:
Set against the backdrop of the chaos and civil war that enveloped 1990s Sierra Leone, "Blood Diamond" is the story of Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), an ex-mercenary from Zimbabwe, and Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a Mende fisherman. Both men are African, but their histories and their circumstances are as different as any can be until their fates become joined in a common quest to recover a rare pink diamond, the kind of stone that can transform a life...or end it.
Solomon, who has been taken from his family and forced to work in the diamond fields, finds the extraordinary gem and hides it at great risk, knowing if he is discovered, he will be killed instantly. But he also knows the diamond could not only provide the means to save his wife and daughters from a life as refugees but also help rescue his son, Dia, from an even worse fate as a child soldier.
I reccommend it!