Almost a month back I had written about 5 movies I wanted to watch over the next few months. I have so far watched both the movies out of the five that have been released in India so far. Babel last week and Blood Diamond today. Babel was brilliant with one very memorable scene in a pub, but that is an old story now.
Blood Diamond, however, is a different sort of a movie. A movie that shakes you to your core and at parts you definitely feel depressed. However, as the movie progresses a sense of something good coming out of the whole thing starts building up in you. The movie is based on illegal African diamond trade that was used to finance Civil Wars in Angola and Sierra Leone. The diamond trade caused so much killings and blood shed that these were actually called blood diamonds.
The movie has so much blood shed that it is easy for everyone to digest it. You realise that such things did happen in the past and despite several UN resolutions things might not have totally stopped. There is a scene where Solomon (Djimon Honsou) says that he understands the greed of white men, but what he does not understand is how his own people can do all that to themselves. I think that he is bang on. The other scene is where Danny (Leonardo DiCaprio) tries to explain why he is what he is to Maddy (Jennifer Connelly).
DiCaprio is absolutely brilliant and I think he has improved with leaps and bounds with each movie as an actor. If he was good in Departed, he is awesome here. Djimon also plays the part of Solomon Vandy to perfection. However, Jennifer is under utilised in the movie and her part under developed.
All said and done Blood Diamond is a fabulous movie and highly recommended by me. The quote of the movie, and the only scene where you can manage a smile:
I hope they do not find oil here. Things can get really bad then.
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