Blood Diamond

[helen]

Saw Blood Diamond this afternoon at Ward Theater.

It takes place in 1999 during the Sierra Leone civil war and it is about a fisherman named Solomon played by Djimon Hounsou who is captured by rebels after they raid his fishing village. He is then forced to work in the rebels' labor camp getting diamonds from a river. While there he finds a big diamond and attempts to hide it. The rebel leader in charge of the camp notices this and before he is able to execute Solomon government forces raid the camp.

The rebel leader is injured kind of badly but survives and is later placed in prison with Solomon who was captured eariler by government forces. While there the rebel leader demands where Solomon has hid the diamond. The rebel leader can't do anything about it but is overhead by Danny played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Who then gets involved in Solomon's affairs as Solomon is trying to reunite his family.

Jennifer Connelly plays a journalist who crosses paths with Danny first and then later on Solomon as the three of them try to go back to the rebel's labor camp to find the hidden diamond.

While it was kind of a long movie, it was an okay adventure movie, then again it had it's "war as hell" moments to it.

[Konaguy]

Re: Blood Diamond

I was going to see it last night. But I felt sick, so I didn't go. I may see it later this week.

[anapuni808]

Re: Blood Diamond

(post deleted)

[AlohaKine]

Re: Blood Diamond

Sounds similar to a story I read in high school, I think it was called "the Pearl". It's about some poor people in a 3rd world county that find a hugh perfect pearl in an oyster. They think their hard lives of privation will now suddenly change. But fate is cruel many times with a find like this in a poor country because of the corruption and greed as well as the lack of the "rule of law." Bad events happened and they never got the money. So tragic. This movie sounds similar, I think I may take a look.

[Miulang]

Re: Blood Diamond

If you go to see Blood Diamonds without knowing about the history of the diamond industry and the international diamond cartel, it could just be another action flick. But the movie also is an allegory for the mystery and intrigue that comprised the diamond industry in the years when de Beers, a Johannesburg, South African company, totally monopolized the diamond market and created an artificial scarcity of the gemstone and inflated its selling prices.

Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: Blood Diamond

The Washington Post interviewed some Sierra Leonian refugees after a showing of Blood Diamond. Apparently, there is an enclave of refugees from Sierra Leone there who fled from their homeland during the diamond wars.

All of those interviewed agreed that the film was an accurate portrayal of the violence.

"It hits so close to home," said Kadija Jalloh, president of the Maryland chapter of Youth for Sierra Leone Improvement, which had organized Saturday's gathering. "A lot of the people, a lot of them came to America just because of the war. People in my organization witnessed these things going on, witnessed their homes being burnt down, witnessed friends and family members being killed."

..."I never ever realized this is why it happened. This is why I had to leave my house. This is why I fell on dead bodies. . . . This is why I almost lost my life," she said. "I thought it was for power. I didn't know it was for a diamond."

Miulang