Heart of darkness
INFO
Blood Diamond
3 stars. Directed by Edward Zwick. Stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly. Rated R. Opens Fri., Dec. 8. At area theaters.
Major motion pictures about African social problems always face a Catch-22. To be commercially viable and attract Western movie-goers, the films need to cast big stars -- usually white ones -- in leading roles. So stories about the hardships of black Africans end up unfolding from the perspective of white characters, watering down the urgency of the very issue that inspired the film in the first place.
Exhibit A is Cry Freedom, ostensibly a biopic about martyred anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko (a young Denzel Washington), which devoted more screen time to Kevin Kline's concerned journalist. Several African films this year have worked around the whitewashing problem. Catch a Fire cast Tim Robbins as the antagonist, a conflicted South African secret policeman, while The Last King of Scotland used a white protagonist not for star power, but for outsider status to draw the audience closer to the nightmarish inner circle of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker).
Alas, the latest Hollywood-produced African drama, Blood Diamond, succumbs to the same kind of white preferential treatment as Cry Freedom did. Edward Zwick, director of Glory and The Last Samurai, presents an engrossing, well-researched narrative about "conflict diamonds," or African diamonds mined in war zones in order to bankroll armed bloodshed. Despite its impeccable crusading credentials, Blood Diamond finds a vehicle for the issue in an utterly predictable plot involving a cynical white smuggler played by Titanic star Leonardo DiCaprio.
The sufferings of the black residents of 1999 Sierra Leone find a voice in fisherman Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou). He lives a peaceable life with his family until an unprovoked attack from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which massacres and mutilates civilians. His family escapes but Solomon is enslaved at one of the RUF's black-market diamond mines, where he manages to find and hide a 100-carat, uncut pink diamond, which becomes the story's MacGuffin.
Enter Danny Archer (DiCaprio), a diamond smuggler and veteran soldier from Zimbabwe. Danny hears rumors of Solomon's gem and tries to partner up with the fisherman, who only wants to reunite with his family. In turn, American reporter Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) pursues Danny as the perfect source for her exposé of the trade in conflict diamonds. DiCaprio and Connelly's scenes lapse into an achingly familiar cycle: flirt, argue, repeat. The fact that their characters are named "Archer" and "Bowen" seems too clever by half, and Danny's change of heart seems a foregone conclusion.
Bowen serves as Blood Diamond's conscience and mouthpiece, well aware of the extent of the Western world's indifference but still convinced that, "People back home wouldn't buy a ring for their finger if they knew it cost somebody else's hand." The film's latter section emphasizes the mismatched-buddy dynamic between Danny and Solomon, like The Defiant Ones against a backdrop of African strife, culminating with a heavy-handed plea for racial cooperation.
As much as Blood Diamond tries to indict global companies and Western consumers for the abuses of the diamond trade, its depiction of Sierra Leone's guerrilla warfare overshadows the international issues. The black revolutionaries prove the film's most sadistic villains by far, and Blood Diamond's most terrifying, inedible images involve child soldiers, seen shooting innocents with assault rifles almost too big for them to carry. Solomon's son is drafted as an RUF child soldier and subject to indoctrination worthy of any cult.
Blood Diamond features white bad guys, such as Michael Sheen (The Queen's Tony Blair) as an unethical European diamond profiteer. But the audience will be more likely to remember the moments of black-on-black violence and exploitation than the corporate interests that profit from them.
If the film doesn't completely strike its intended target, Blood Diamond remains a crisply paced and superbly photographed film, featuring magnificent African vistas and engrossing action scenes. But no matter how sincere Zwick and the other filmmakers may be, Blood Diamond's dramatization of Third World problems inevitably feels like a kind of celebrity tourism. Its attention to the plight of Africa lasts only until the next big-issue film comes along.
COMMENTS
RE: Heart of darkness
Posted by none on 02.09.07 @ 02:08 PM
i think this is an amazing film and that it relly shows how one man can change the world and the lead is so very cute and amazingly fit
RE: Heart of darkness
Posted by Garnet Campbell on 01.10.07 @ 07:35 PM
I remember seeing footage of child soldiers of Sierra Leone and felt like no one cared to tell the story of the tragic events taking place. So in my opinion if the film simply raises awareness of the situation without grossly distorting the details then that should be applauded. Your review sounds like the film failed to deliver the message of what was happening there. For the general movie going public it was probably a huge revalation that something like that was even happening on the planet and definately would get people asking questions at jewelry stores which is a start. As far as the story being predictable... well yes.. they all are arent they ... there is something entertaining about knowing the main character isnt going to get killed in the first act. Does the film entertain.. yes.. does it enlighten us to the problems in Sierra Leone... definately... success ... miss the mark? no way!