Feb 25, 2007 12:16 PM
5142 Views
(Updated Feb 26, 2007 03:33 PM)
My brother spent a little more than one year in Sudan as an officer in United Nations Peace Keeping Force and it was only then, that I bothered to look up where Sudan is on the map of Africa.
Brother is back safe and sound, and Sudan is out of my mind. There is some trouble in Darfur region of that country, BBC tells me everyday, but that is too far for me to worry!
But then as the journalist Maddy Bowen(played by Jennifer Connelly) says you need real people to get people empathize with. That's what'Blood Diamond' does. It charts the tragedy of an entire continent keeping in front tragedy of an individual. It tells the tale of how an entire generation is being denied of its innocence across the world, in the name of revolution, freedom, strength and what not, but is nothing else but greed of someone. Every precious thing that Africa has ever produced, rubber, Oil, ivory and now diamonds, reduced the cost of just one thing: human life.
Set in Sierra Leone, about a decade back, the film marks the trail of diamonds starting from this(and such) war-torn lands and reaching devloped countries. In the process earning the separatists hundreds of millions of dollars for funding the civil war that has made millions of people refugees in their own country. Thousands of women raped and murdered, men either shot or amputated or if lucky made to work in diamond mines. And young boys made mercenaries, made murderers who kill without a thought.
Oscar winning director Edward Zwick has treated the story and screenplay by Charles Leavitt in such a matter of fact way that you are just stunned by the ruthless brutality. I even felt myself asking a question of why should world help Africa, if the people there are killing their own countrymen so unabashedly!
Solomon Wandy(Djimon Hounsou) has big dreams for his son's future Dia and wants him to be a doctor, but separatist RUF, which is fighting a civil war in the country, abducts him. Dia ends up being in RUF. Smuggler Danny Archer(Leonardo Di Caprio) will help him find his son, if he gives him the'biggest he ever saw' diamond, and journalist Maddy Bowen will help Danny for the story about diamonds emanating from war-torn countries. But the diamond leaves a long and bloody trail, untill Bowen's story about Blood Diamond brings forth the story of Solomon and many of the countries decide to put an end to this business.
Both Caprio and Hounsou have earned themselves an Oscar nomination(again! Hopefully they will win) each for best actor and best supporting actor respectively and that itself speaks volumes about their performances. The film has three other nominations for editing, sound mixing and sound editing. The film may not be exactly picturesque and but the depiction of battles on streets and relief camps seems to come straight from the BBC/CNN documentaries. I also liked the music by Chris Howard.
In my opinion, the one scene that stands out is when, Dia points the gun on his own father. It's then, you realize how deep the scar runs.
One of the best movies I have ever seen. If you haven't watched it, what are you waiting for?
