'Blood Diamond' thrills, chills
With the powerfully acted, vividly shot "Blood Diamond," director Edward Zwick takes an unflinching look at the brutality of the African diamond trade.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly star as three disparate figures in 1990s Sierra Leone who start out using each other and end up wanting to help each other.
DiCaprio, as Zimbabwean smuggler and ex-mercenary Daniel Archer, is constantly on the hunt for the biggest stone out there. Hounsou, as fisherman Solomon Vandy, has been ripped from his home by militaristic rebels and forced to work in the diamond fields. He happens to have found an exceptional gem -- a pink diamond the size of a large ice cube -- and buried it in the ground.
And Connelly, as American journalist Maddy Bowen, is investigating the widespread violence and corruption that pervade the diamond industry.
Each of these people needs something from the others at various times: Daniel needs Solomon's diamond; Solomon needs Daniel to help him sell the diamond to get his family out of a camp in Guinea; and Maddy needs them both for a story she's writing, one she hopes will open people's eyes back home to the atrocities she sees every day.
One such phenomenon is especially chilling: the methodology of taking young boys from their homes, putting automatic rifles in their tiny hands and turning them into remorseless killers. This is the fate that has befallen Solomon's oldest child, Dia (Kagiso Kuypers).
Difficult as it is to watch, you'd like to see the subject explored further. Instead, trying to rescue him is just one component of the trio's long and arduous journey.
Stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly, Caruso Kuypers and Arnold Vosloo. Directed by Edward Zwick. Written by Charles Leavitt and C. Gaby Mitchell. 134 min. Rated R. Grade: B