There's a big difference between a message movie and a soapbox movie. A message movie is subtle, and lets the message sneak in a natural way so that the audience is enraptured by the story it is trying to tell. A soapbox movie is often bombastic, hitting you over the head with its message, and coming across about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the noggin. Blood Diamond is a soapbox movie. It is a movie that contains many great moments, but they do not come completely together to make a completely satisfying film going experience. That's because director Edward Zwick (The Last Samurai, Legends of the Fall) is too self-obsessed with making his movie a grandiose epic that he hammers his message home so many times that the audience starts to become exhausted by the time it's over. The movie is well made, has some strong performances, and offers some haunting imagery, particularly concerning its depiction of brainwashed children toting automatic weapons for African rebels. But its ambitions are sunk somewhat by an unfocused screenplay, and main characters that could have walked in from a 1940s Jungle adventure film.

Our rogue hero is Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), a former African mercenary turned trader who specializes in smuggling diamonds out of Sierra Leone to overseas dealers. The movie's main message is that many of the diamonds mined in Africa and sold in jewelry stores here in the US are the result of bloodshed, slavery and cruelty. We witness this first-hand when the simple African fisherman Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) is captured by rebels who force him into slavery to dig and panhandle for precious stones to further their cause. When the government stages a raid on the rebel group, Solomon is mistaken for one of them, and is sent to prison, coincidentally the same one Danny is currently confined to after one of his smuggling attempts went bust. In prison, Danny happens to hear that Solomon discovered and hid a particularly large diamond right before his arrest. When the two men get out of prison, Danny is forced to make an uneasy alliance with Solomon if he wants to get his hands on the diamond. He promises to help the fisherman find the family that he was separated from when the rebels initially captured him and attacked his village if Solomon will show him where he hid the diamond. The two are later joined by a spirited young American journalist named Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), who is in Africa to report the truth about "blood diamonds", and the money that is being made overseas off of the violence in Africa.

Blood Diamond is a movie that wants to make us think twice the next time we're in a jewelry store, and think about where some of these diamonds on display initially came from. What it basically boils down to is that it is a two and a half hour guilt trip disguised as a spirited African adventure movie. That doesn't mean that the movie does not work. There are many moments in this film that are downright eye-opening and almost hypnotic in its depiction of cruelty. The key moments of the film that really knock the wind out of the viewer are when we get to see how violent African rebel groups kidnapping young children, then turning them into soulless killers, giving them weapons training, and forcing them to target practice on live "dummies" until they are completely desensitized and brainwashed by the beliefs of the group. We witness this as Solomon's oldest son is kidnapped in another raid, and we see how he gradually loses his humanity as he is drugged and manipulated into joining the rebels. It is merciless in its depiction of children killing innocent people with glee, and makes for some of the most horrifying imagery to hit screens in recent memory. While these images are undeniably powerful, they are surrounded by an unfocused screenplay by Charles Leavitt (K-Pax) that doesn't know if it wants to be an eye-opening expose on the dirty deeds of mainstream jewelry dealers, a terrifying look at the turmoil going on in Africa (which has already been depicted in many recent films such as The Constant Gardener, Hotel Rwanda, and Catch a Fire), or an old fashioned adventure movie. It tries to be all of these things, and because it can never decide on a consistent tone, the movie ends up developing a multiple personality disorder.

While the film's intentions are noble, and it contains many unforgettable moments, it also is brought down by the "epic" quality that director Zwick brings to the entire story. You get the feeling that perhaps a smaller or more personal approach would have benefitted this story more, but anyone who has seen one of Zwick's past films know that this is not his style. He doesn't simply want to tell us what's going on in Africa, he wants to hammer the point home with numerous long-winded speeches where the characters talk about the situation in such a scripted manner that dialogue exchanges start to sound like public service announcements. The characters frequently break the action to talk about what's going on around them, and although it's supposed to open up the eyes of the audience, it comes across as forced, unnatural and overly-scripted. The film's depiction of its main characters don't help much, as they seem to have come from a writer's handbook on how to write a jungle adventure movie. The character of Danny is your charming rogue who chain smokes and tries to talk his way out of any situation, Solomon is your standard silent black man role who only talks when he is spoken to, refers to everyone as "boss", and is so single-minded in his determination in finding his family that the script forgets to tell us anything else about him, and Maddy is your typical female heroine type for this kind of movie who is feisty and spirited, able to resist the charms of the rough Danny at first, but soon finds herself falling for him. We've seen these character types many times before, and they only help add to the overall feeling that the storytelling is too artificial and overly plotted for its own good. Everything seems like its been planned with the utmost care, when it is the film's grittier and chaotic moments that wind up being the most memorable. If the movie had kept the terrifyingly honest tone that it holds during the scenes depicting the lives of the rebels, this could have been one of the great films of the year.

Despite the fact that the lead characters are underdeveloped cliches, the performances are top notch just about all across the board. Leonardo DiCaprio delivers yet another trademark fine performance, even if his accent that he is forced to use throughout the film is somewhat suspect at times. He plays the character of Danny in somewhat of a gray area, neither as a hero nor as a villain. Yes, he's mainly interested in himself and in finding the diamond that Solomon hid for his own purposes, but he is still able to make the character sympathetic without completely whitewashing over the negative aspects of his role. Djimon Hounsou is a powerful presence during some of his more dramatic scenes, but he is sorely underused, and forced to spend a lot of his scenes standing in the background, watching DiCaprio and Connelly talk to each other. Speaking of Connelly, her character seems to be rendered almost useless due to the fact that she is forced to leave the movie about half way through, and not appear again until the end. Still, during the moments she is on screen, she has good chemistry with DiCaprio and is able to create a likeable, if not cliched, heroine. Still, you have to wonder how she manages to stay so beautiful and dirt-free when she's running through the jungles and deserts of Africa, getting shot at by rebels, and plowing her way down mud and blood-covered roads. Despite the big names headlining the movie, the key stand out performance belongs to young Kagiso Kuypers who plays Solomon's son, Dia. His change from humble son to cold blooded killer for the rebel army is chilling and realistic, and he is able to handle many very difficult scenes with grace.

Blood Diamond is a movie with a lot of potential and great moments that are brought down by how overblown and epic everything is. We wish the movie would scale back on the chase scenes, countless shoot outs and characters giving grand speeches that ram the film's message home, and just focus on the heart of the story. When the movie is actually capable of doing this, we see just how great of a movie it could have been. As it is, Blood Diamond is a very imperfect movie that hints at greatness, but keeps on losing its nerve. When the end credits started to roll, I wasn't thinking about how I should think twice about where jewelry comes from before I buy it. I was thinking about how much better the movie could have been if it had just taken a more personable approach to the material. Something tells me that was not the kind of thoughts the filmmakers wanted me to have walking out of the movie.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

0 comments