Blood Diamond

Blood Diamond Blood Diamond, which takes place in 1990s civil war-torn Sierra Leone, Africa, might make you look down at that rock on your finger and wonder: Where did it come from? The message, as told through the story of a local fisherman, a diamond smuggler and a journalist, is loud and clear. Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), the fisherman, is separated from his family and forced by rebel troops to work in the diamond fields, where he finds and buries a rare, large pink stone. South African mercenary and diamond smuggler Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) discovers Solomon’s secret and works out a plan to get the diamond in return for helping Solomon find his family. An American journalist, Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), gets dragged into the plot, hoping to get the big story. There are painful scenes of child soldiers murdering villages full of people and families ripped apart in a civil war financed, indirectly, by European jewellers eager to get their hands on the gems. The actors all do a fine job, but the biggest kudos go to DiCaprio, who is very convincing as a troubled white African. And director Edward Zwick makes a complicated film not only come to life, but come together. The film is long at 2 1/2 hours, but it’s hard to imagine anything being edited out. In all, it’s not a pretty picture. But it tells an important and powerful story.