Blood Diamond ... Finally ****
You had me at Leonardo diCaprio with a Seth-Efricen accent …
Director: Edward Zwick
Writer: Charles Leavitt
Stars: Leonardo diCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connolly
“Every time we discover something of value in Africa, the locals die,” a delegate announces grimly at an international conference on the ‘blood diamond’ trade, before listing them to make his point: “Gold, ivory, diamonds …” As an African cronie in the middle of a civil war wryly observes, “Let’s hope they don’t discover oil here. Then we’d really have problems.”
But, as the movie unflinchingly shows, the locals have quite enough problems, thank you very much. From boys being stolen from their families, dosed up on drugs and heavy metal music, handed a gun and taught how to use it, to villages being razed and their inhabitants mutilated, Zwick bravely and graphically shows just why colonialism was a bad idea (because, two hundred years down the track, it leads to this). Of course, this is a Hollywood movie, and we need a Hollywood protagonist if we are to truly feel anything for these people (a lesson learned through trial and error and Hotel Rwanda), so in stalks diCaprio’s former mercenary, a man who could give Daniel Craig’s superbly tough Bond a run for his money (and he has a waaay cooler accent). Danny Archer is brittle, amoral and unsqueamish, and the film lifts itself above being another action movie with a conscience by deftly showing his character arc. Connolly, working hard enough already with a two-dimensional, over-eager, oh-we’ve-seen-this-twenty-zillion-times-before American journalist, completely forgets to fancy diCaprio and their chemistry fizzles. But it doesn’t really matter, as their romance is peripheral to the real plot: that of Danny and Solomon (Hounsou)’s search for a mysterious pink diamond.
Although diCaprio puts in a great performance and a believeable (if occasionally wavering) accent, the show belongs to Hounsou, who is all subtle emotion and raw endings. In one particularly memorable scene, where he has to reverse the brainwashing of his teenage soldier-son, there is such panic and love in his eyes it’s all you can do to stay silent to hear what he’s saying (I was sharing the cinema with one inconsiderate patron who just didn’t – she started yelling things at the screen. A couple behind me were weeping loudly).
Connolly’s character introduces a superfluous subplot (although the director would probably argue that it contributes to diCaprio’s character development – the jury’s still out), it’s about twenty minutes too long tying up the loose ends, and the ending is one we’ve all seen before, but aside from these minor quibbles, the film is a brave, intelligent action piece which is as much a crowd-pleaser as it is Oscar-bait. With strong performances and a central idea to give any Hollywood starlet cause for lost sleep, all packaged in a format made palatable for the average filmgoer, Blood Diamond is likely to be the real winner come February 28th, as the Oscars are guranteed to lose some of their sparkle.
*A bit on diCaprio: I really don’t understand why this is still an issue. Titanic was ten years ago. Almost every performance he’s put in before or since has been exquisite (from rowdy backpacker Richard in The Beach to his Oscar-nominated turn in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? to anything Scorcese has ever put him in) so why are there still headlines heralding “diCaprio grows up”?? Sure, he’s still beguilingly young-looking – although not beautiful anymore – but why should that stand in the way of his being taken seriously? He has consistently shown himself to be drawn to character-driven films over blockbusters, shunned Titanic on its big night when he could have used it to propel his career to Cruise-like proportions, and despite his disappointing propensity to only date supermodels (note to Leo, as The Guardian stated: not even models trust men who only date models) has proven himself to be thoughtful outside his work as well.
You had me at Leonardo diCaprio with a Seth-Efricen accent …
Director: Edward Zwick
Writer: Charles Leavitt
Stars: Leonardo diCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connolly
“Every time we discover something of value in Africa, the locals die,” a delegate announces grimly at an international conference on the ‘blood diamond’ trade, before listing them to make his point: “Gold, ivory, diamonds …” As an African cronie in the middle of a civil war wryly observes, “Let’s hope they don’t discover oil here. Then we’d really have problems.”
But, as the movie unflinchingly shows, the locals have quite enough problems, thank you very much. From boys being stolen from their families, dosed up on drugs and heavy metal music, handed a gun and taught how to use it, to villages being razed and their inhabitants mutilated, Zwick bravely and graphically shows just why colonialism was a bad idea (because, two hundred years down the track, it leads to this). Of course, this is a Hollywood movie, and we need a Hollywood protagonist if we are to truly feel anything for these people (a lesson learned through trial and error and Hotel Rwanda), so in stalks diCaprio’s former mercenary, a man who could give Daniel Craig’s superbly tough Bond a run for his money (and he has a waaay cooler accent). Danny Archer is brittle, amoral and unsqueamish, and the film lifts itself above being another action movie with a conscience by deftly showing his character arc. Connolly, working hard enough already with a two-dimensional, over-eager, oh-we’ve-seen-this-twenty-zillion-times-before American journalist, completely forgets to fancy diCaprio and their chemistry fizzles. But it doesn’t really matter, as their romance is peripheral to the real plot: that of Danny and Solomon (Hounsou)’s search for a mysterious pink diamond.
Although diCaprio puts in a great performance and a believeable (if occasionally wavering) accent, the show belongs to Hounsou, who is all subtle emotion and raw endings. In one particularly memorable scene, where he has to reverse the brainwashing of his teenage soldier-son, there is such panic and love in his eyes it’s all you can do to stay silent to hear what he’s saying (I was sharing the cinema with one inconsiderate patron who just didn’t – she started yelling things at the screen. A couple behind me were weeping loudly).
Connolly’s character introduces a superfluous subplot (although the director would probably argue that it contributes to diCaprio’s character development – the jury’s still out), it’s about twenty minutes too long tying up the loose ends, and the ending is one we’ve all seen before, but aside from these minor quibbles, the film is a brave, intelligent action piece which is as much a crowd-pleaser as it is Oscar-bait. With strong performances and a central idea to give any Hollywood starlet cause for lost sleep, all packaged in a format made palatable for the average filmgoer, Blood Diamond is likely to be the real winner come February 28th, as the Oscars are guranteed to lose some of their sparkle.
*A bit on diCaprio: I really don’t understand why this is still an issue. Titanic was ten years ago. Almost every performance he’s put in before or since has been exquisite (from rowdy backpacker Richard in The Beach to his Oscar-nominated turn in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? to anything Scorcese has ever put him in) so why are there still headlines heralding “diCaprio grows up”?? Sure, he’s still beguilingly young-looking – although not beautiful anymore – but why should that stand in the way of his being taken seriously? He has consistently shown himself to be drawn to character-driven films over blockbusters, shunned Titanic on its big night when he could have used it to propel his career to Cruise-like proportions, and despite his disappointing propensity to only date supermodels (note to Leo, as The Guardian stated: not even models trust men who only date models) has proven himself to be thoughtful outside his work as well.
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