Awesome movie that gets greedy little girlfriends everywhere to stop nagging about diamond rings once and for all!
It does have Leonardo DiCaprio doing a great job of whipping off his sunglasses to look cool. Seriously. He’s trying to persuade Djimon Hansou* to trust him. He’s been wearing these annoying sunglasses for what must have been an hour. So he says something like ‘Trust me’ and whips off his sunglasses. It’s a cool scene that makes David Caruso’s sunglasses removal look amateurish.
-Tom
- Was I even close? I can’t be bothered to look it up.
If by “awesome” you mean “a mess,” then I agree with you.
This is like five movies jammed into one. Is it a Treasure of the Sierra Madre adventure? Is it a political film? Is it about Africa, or the white people that would save it? Is it about the diamond trade? Is it about a man trying to save his family? Is it about a journalist? Nope, it’s about all of those things. Great.
It’s full of stock, cliched characters delivering speeches (what was Jennifer Connelly there for, other than to tell us what’s going on and help Leo’s character be more Hollywood sympathetic?).
It has major leaps; how in the hell do they keep finding people in Africa, when as the movie points out no one is tracked? Yet, they stumble on his wife and kids, and then his son just happens to be in the same diamond mine he was in earlier? Um, yeah.
A better version of this movie is David O. Russell’s “Three Kings.” It manages to juggle adventure and politics a whole lot better. And it’s funnier. Or if you want a better movie about Africa, go for The Constant Gardener.
No, by awesome I mean it irectly link dead African babies and the splashes of blood from machete-severed-limbs to diamonds, thereby giving men everywhere a Hollywood-backed excuse for not buying diamonds.
No, by awesome I mean it directly links dead African babies and the splashes of blood from machete-severed-limbs to diamonds, thereby giving men everywhere a Hollywood-backed excuse for not buying them.
I can totally see how someone might like this movie. It was actually better than I expected.
But pretty much any time Jennifer Connelly shows up onscreen, the level of quality takes a sudden and dramatic nose dive. This is mainly because of the forced romantic subplot, the lack of chemistry between her and DiCaprio, and the way they shoehorn in some glibly made political point. Ouch.
But I really liked DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou.
Also, Steve, they don’t stumble on his wife and kids. Jennifer Connelly’s character finds their names on a UN database of refugees. They go to the camp and a soldier goes in to get the wife and kids.
But Blood Diamond simply isn’t even in the same league as Three Kings, Constant Gardner, or even Zwick’s other movies.
-Tom
Yeah, it’s a pretty watchable mess, and certainly moves quickly. It doesn’t really linger on any of the five movies fighting for control for too long.
But pretty much any time Jennifer Connelly shows up onscreen, the level of quality takes a sudden and dramatic nose dive. This is mainly because of the forced romantic subplot, the lack of chemistry between her and DiCaprio, and the way they shoehorn in some glibly made political point. Ouch.
At least she managed to get him to admit why he’s such a jaded, cynical opportunist; his parents were brutally murdered! Now we can root for his redemption.
Jennifer Connelly is pretty much my perfect woman, but that character shouldn’t have been anywhere near that movie. Thank god white American journalists will open our eyes to the horrors taking place in Africa.
But I really liked DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou.
Yeah, though you know you’re always going to get some “noble” performance when Hounsou is in a movie; he’s a younger Morgan Freeman. It’ be cool to see him tear it up a bit a la Denzel Washington in Training Day. (Or Freeman in Street Smart 20 years ago.)
DiCaprio is good, but I still have a hard time buying him as a tough guy because he’s just too… pretty or something. I can’t put my finger on it. I saw this with a friend and we were trying to figure out other actors who could better pull off that sort of world-weary cynic. She suggested Tim Roth, and while he’d do the slimy con man, he couldn’t handle the physical stuff as well. (Though Rob Roy, hmm…) So, maybe Nicolas Cage from Lord of War, Russell Crowe, or even George Clooney. (Though Clooney is probably too naturally charming.)
Also, Steve, they don’t stumble on his wife and kids. Jennifer Connelly’s character finds their names on a UN database of refugees. They go to the camp and a soldier goes in to get the wife and kids.
Yeah, I should have clarified that. It still seems like a nearly impossible task. And his son working in the same mine seems way too much of a coincidence.
But Blood Diamond simply isn’t even in the same league as Three Kings, Constant Gardner, or even Zwick’s other movies.
I think it’s better than Last Samurai. That means something, right?
I really liked DiCaprio in this one. He did a great job of gleefully pulling off the underhanded deals. He seemed appropriately menacing in the jungle. I found his tearful confession about his parents a little much, but it seems contextually appropriate for the rest of the butchery we’ve seen to that point. Also, great accent.
I can see why someone might think it seemed like a bunch of different movies stuffed into one, but I didn’t have a problem with it. I enjoyed the fast pace and poignant dramatization of innocent children pressed into savegry. The camera work during the street battles kept me on the edge of my seat. (spoilers) I loved the ending, which offered me a little bit of surprise as I was sure it was going to be a happy boy gets girl ending. As it turns out, it’s a sad boy gets girl ending.
NOTE: We’re in spoiler territory. Get out of here, or don’t come crying to us if you’re gonna see this and still read these posts!
Actually, one of my favorite things about DiCaprio in this also worked to his benefit in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. He’s got this weird kind of pinched up face that does a great job of suggesting a retard or an Afrikaner.
Seriously, though, I did like how well he handled the affectations of a South African. From the accent to the rhythm of speech to the little ‘ehs’ peppered throughout his lines. I liked it when he dropped into some sort of funky thieves argot when negotiating an arms deal.
But good lord, having him open up to Jennifer Connelly after he dismisses how “you Americans sure love to share your feelings”? Is Zwick’s ear for character really that tinny? But as Tim points out, at least the movie had the presence of mind to kill him.
-Tom
I haven’t seen Blood Diamond yet, but whenever I see Leo in the previews, I just think of how great he’d be in a Kenny Rogers biopic.
And, brilliantly, Zwick takes his stand only after the civil conflicts once fueled by the diamond trade have largely ended, leaving diamond export the main hope for legitimate economic development.
Ironically, the furor over blood diamonds comes at a time when many of those conflicts have run their course. Rather than fueling war, diamonds today may represent the only real means that these devastated, largely undeveloped nations have to rebuild their shattered communities.
…
While the intentions behind (boycott proposals) are noble, the solution fails to take into account the economic devastation such a practice would unleash on the legitimate diamond industry in Africa. Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa together take in $5.5 billion annually from diamonds, accounting for 42 percent of the world’s production and dwarfing that of the conflict-afflicted areas. In Botswana, the world’s largest producer, diamonds account for nearly 80 percent of the country’s export income and have single-handedly transformed one of the developing world’s poorest nations into one of its fastest growing economies.
As usual with Hollywood, the political message is about 5 years too late, and is now counterproductive. Probably the best thing you can do for Sierra Leone in 2007 is buy some of its diamonds to encourage the continuing legitimization of its export market, now that Sierra Leone is a participant in the Kimberley Process.
Dan, it is told as a sort of period piece. When our hero and heroine meet, she’s watching Clinton comment about the Lewinsky nonsense.
Also, Blood Diamond hedges its bet by tacking on a message about child soldiers. You know, in case you want something to fret about that’s a bit more timely than the diamond trade. But the title card at the end of the movie makes it clear that it’s okay to get diamonds as long as you insist they’re “conflict free”.
BTW, you should totally see the movie. Leo is really dreamy!
-Tom
I liked it when he dropped into some sort of funky thieves argot when negotiating an arms deal.
This scene cannot be overrated. I was tremendously dissappointed that none of the rest of the movie was in that.
I thought that it wasn’t Connelly who killed the movie, it was Hounsou. Not because of his acting(which was workmanlike, as always), but because it reminded me that Zwick thinks Africa is like 50 miles across and has a few hundred people in it.
Also, I can’t believe in 2006 we still make movies with Wise Old Negros setting troubled white boys straight.
If only Quarter to Three were like the movies, a character named Wise Old Negros would log on right now and set Ben straight.
I saw the movie dubbed in French so if the acting was any good, I wouldn’t know, as all subtly goes out the window. But the upside to that was that I could really concentrate on just how gorgeous Jennifer Connelly really is. My love affair that started back when I was a tyke watching Labyrinth, and then into my teens and beyond with Rocketeer and Dark City almost faltered when she went all scrawny and anorexic with House in the Fog. Ah, she’s filled out again into pleasing perfection I see… mmm.
I am also pleased that perhaps chicks will chill on the whole diamond fixation. Unfortunately my girlfriend’s plans don’t let me get off that easy…
As for the movie, it got pretty hackneyed and silly. Fun, but not grounded enough to make me believe anything similar could actually have happened. Also, that whole dying telephone bit was sappy as hell and would have worked better editted to thirty seconds.
Fuck, the magical n? Like Will Smith in Bagger Vance? Or Hounsou in In America? I don’t watch those movies anymore and I thank you for telling me that this overdone trope is in Blood Diamond as well. I really don’t understand either how Hollywood hasn’t moved past this.
Arise!
Since I’m currently working my way through Far Cry 2, I thought I’d finally watch this movie. Egads, the comments in this thread about the movie being a mess, multiple different flicks shoehorned into one, are absolutely spot-on. The transition from one segment of the movie to the next, in particular when the journalist flies off and the party drops down to just the two ‘buddies’, was very noticeable.
Kind of sad, but the bit of the movie that produced the biggest reaction in me was the bridge checkpoint. When Danny pulled his handgun, shot two out of the three guards there, picked up a rifle, and shot the guy who was running away, my reaction was, “YES!” – it was the thrill of finally getting a decent gun in STALKER all over again.
I do wish Far Cry 2 let me fly a Mi-24, though…