BLOOD DIAMOND

Director: Edward Zwick (Glory, The Last Samurai, Legends of the Fall)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly

With The Departed earlier in the year, and now Blood Diamond, Leonardo DiCaprio has moved into the realm of a convincing action actor. Oh, both of these films are quite a bit more than your average Hollywood action flick, but nonetheless they both required a bit of 'tough guy' acting. DiCaprio has actually delivered in both. Just a few years ago I would have seriously doubted he could have succeeded in this genre, but he has. The Departed is one of my favorite films of 2006, and while not quite at that level, Blood Diamond is a fine film in its own right.

The story centers around DiCaprio as an ex-miltary diamond smuggler in Sierre Leone, and Hounsou as a tribesman enslaved by a barbaric rebel group. The two eventually meet up and go off in search of an enormous diamond Hounsou found and buried during his servitude in the rebel-held diamond camps. For DiCaprio's character, the diamond is a ticket out of Africa and his unhappy lifestyle. Hounsou's character needs the help Dicaprio can provide finding his family who have been torn apart by the rebels.

In those few sentences, this sounds like a fairly cheesy action script. They search for the lost treasure and fight the bad guys along the way? By and large though, the film did a decent job of staying away from cloying sentimentalism and broad Hollywood swipes, with the notable exception of a sickeningly sweet phone call between DiCaprio and Connelly at the finale. Okay, excepting the whole love story between the two. The movie was generally smart and felt real. I applaud DiCaprio for much of this. He gave a truely fine performance.

At its heart, of course, this film is purely a topical movie aimed at all the Western diamond buyers in the audience. The message? Diamonds can be bad, and you've more or less been duped by De Beers marketing into believing that you have to buy one for every American fairly tale wedding. A lot of people don't like topical movies. They don't like to be lectured. They probably won't like this movie. I'll note pointedly that those people are wrong to feel that way, but it's the way it is.

For my part, I don't have a problem with "message" movies. Of course for my part, I already knew and agreed with the message of this particular film. I seriously doubt a single flick will convince more than a handful that they should try something else for an engagment present, but I applaud the effort. The De Beers company has utterly manhandled us into a trance-like servitude of the almighty diamond engagement ring. It's what you buy. It would be weird to do anything else. We believe there's centuries of tradition behind the diamond engagement ring. There's not. De Beers told us there was in the 1950s. We shouldn't feel too bad about being manipulated by marketing though. It's aimed at our most basic psychology. Freud invented it (or at least defined it), and it works very well. We're genetically programmed to be suckers. Oh well.

On this particular issue however, here's the thing: It would be difficult (nearly impossible in today's society) to buy anything that isn't in some way contributing to human exploitation. You want a plastic clothes basket? Too bad, some underpaid Chinese lady worked 80 hours last week to make it. You want a new car? Too bad, some underpaid Mexican had his wages extorted by the local corrupt union boss, or even more corrupt local government official to make its parts. You want a pair of blue jeans? Even worse, some 12 year old kid stiched them up for you in Bangladesh while his boss skimmed off his salary and smacked him around.

In the end I guess we're talking about the scale of awfulness though. The crimes being committed in Africa (and elsewhere) over precious gems are far worse than exploiting factory workers. Rape, murder, and barbarity of the absolute worst kinds imaginable happen daily by both rebel and government sponsored troops in many parts of war-torn Africa. Diamonds and other gems really do fund some of these groups. We never think about it, but we really are contributing to the horror. Yes, it's unlikely this film will help out the situation, but I also know that saying that is entirely a cop out. I do applaud the effort. This was a fine topical film, albeit generally on the "Hollywood entertainment" level. This is an action film that occasionally (okay, rarely) reaches the level of art, but that's all right. It would be supremely stupid to make an art film when you're goal is a to get a message to the masses. And that's what just what this is, a darn good bit of entertainment with a message.

Standouts: I liked both DiCaprio and Hounsou quite a bit. Well directed.
Blowouts: I didn't really like the Connelly character. Her whole storyline felt cheesy and tacked on by Hollywood - you know, to make sure there was a love interest.

Grade: B