Blood Diamond (Edward Zwick, 2006)

Have you ever seen a movie that was so good you didn't want to watch it again so as not to be disappointed? This is a that kind of movie. The poster wasn't too atractive. Looked like a humanitarian fresque with Unicef and the foreign army in the background, honest. You got the picture, yeah. You couldn't be more wrong.

We're in Sierra Leone. Solomon Vandy (Djimoun Hounsoun) lives in the country with his family peacefully as it can get between two raids of the rebels from the R.U.F. During a collective killing of the whole village, they get separated as he is taken as a slave to work on a diamond mine while the rest of his family manages to escape. There he works digging in a river, looking for these precious stones for the chief of the rebels. While cleaning up what we think is a pomp filter, he finds a pretty big diamond: he doesn't think twice and hides it in the ground. The chief of the rebels witnesses the whole scene and is decided to find it back, but an attack led by the government troups prevents him to do it right away. Taken to prison as a supposed rebel, he meats Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), a diamond smuggler that has a lot of interests in finding the stone. The only deal Salomon is ready to cut is to obtain his family back in return. This will be the beginning of an exciting journey that will lead us through Africa's history and amazing landscapes.

Leonardo DiCaprio is giving out here the part of his life. I don't care what he's done (Titanic) and I don't care what he'll be doing in a couple of years. This is a role where he shows us fully his capacities to act. He is white, amazingly pulls out an accent that will appear to be Rhodesian and still, watching him, always looking like a runaway, smuggling, we feel Africa. He feels right, he feels home the whole time. That's a shame he didn't get the oscar for that part because truly, it had been a while since I had last seen such an actor. I haven't seen the Last King of Scotland so I don't blame the comity (at least not for that) for giving it to Forest Whitaker but they could have done like in 1932 when giving the oscar to Wallace Beery AND to Frederic March, that would have been fair. Amazing DiCaprio.
The rest of the cast is also astounding. Djimoun Hounsoun deserved an oscar and the scandalous decision to reward Alan Arkin for 15 minutes of cursing in the very poor Little Miss Sunshine is simply incomprehensible. Jennifer Connelly is also great and manages to follow the rest of the cast in their quest of good acting.

Edward Zwick uses an already-know formula of action and emotion but the historical background and the acting above the average gives to his movie a touch of veracity that astonish us during and after the movie that is underlined by the excellent photography by Eduardo Serra.

He has a point with this movie of course, but doesn't make the same mistake as in the Last Samouraï sugarcoating the end. There is a political message, but with Djimoun Hounsoun not talking at the conference, at the end, he ends up the movie nicely.

Writing you more would be telling so I'll leave you with that. T.I.A bru, T.I.A...

Verdict:
Rated? the movie leads us through the civil war in Sierra Leone. It's not pretty. I'd give an R because I wouldn't picture myself watching this at the age of 13. Too strong, too true.

Worth watching? You got it from what's written above. ABSOLUTELY, it's a must. One of the best movies of the last decade easy.

Final Grade 20/20