Blood Diamond
By Mal Simons, Blockbuster.co.uk

“He is my son. I am his father. I must go find him. Go ahead, shoot me if you want, but I will go find him.”

Leonardo DiCaprio is superb in this fantastic film from acclaimed director Edward Zwick (The Last Samurai, Glory). Nominated for five Oscars® and co-starring Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly, Blood Diamond is an absorbing, action packed thriller set in war-torn Sierra Leone in 1999.

DiCaprio stars as Rhodesian diamond smuggler Danny Archer, a largely unscrupulous ‘business man’ who sells weapons to the rebels fighting to overturn the elected government of Sierra Leone in exchange for diamonds. The rebels he supplies are using a campaign of rape, mutilation and murder in order to terrorise the people of Sierra Leone into submission; they also force children to take part in the conflict by kidnapping and conditioning them to kill, turning them into child soldiers. None of this matters to Archer of course, as a business man; he is only interested in receiving these ‘blood diamonds’.

As diamond sales from Sierra Leone are outlawed by the international community, Archer has to smuggle them out of the country. Caught on the border with Liberia by a Sierra Leone government patrol, Archer is taken to jail and loses the diamonds he needs to use to pay his weapons supplier Colonel Coetzee (Arnold Vosloo).

Meanwhile elsewhere in Sierra Leone, Mende Fisherman Soloman Vandy (Hounsou) is captured and used as a slave when his village is attacked by the well-supplied rebel army. His wife and daughter escape however his son is kidnapped and turned into a child soldier. Set to work mining diamonds, Vandy unearths a large, priceless, pink diamond and buries it for retrieval later.

When Vandy is freed by government troops and taken to the same jail as Archer, the two men eventually meet and come to an arrangement – Vandy and Archer will split the profits from the diamond if Archer can help reunite Vandy and his family and rescue his son from the hands of the rebels.

“In America it’s bling bling. Out here, it’s bling bang.”

After the rebels take the capital city and therefore cut Archer off from his resources, Archer is forced to turn to an American journalist who has been pursuing him to go on record. Maddy Bowen (Connelly) is in Sierra Leone investigating the blood diamond trade. In exchange for his assistance, Bowen agrees to use her press contacts to help him find Vandy’s family and arranges for fake transport papers enabling the two men to travel.

Pursued by the rebel army and by mercenaries led by Colonel Coetzee; Archer and Vandy must cross war-torn Sierra Leone to recover the diamond and save Vandy’s son. What began as an arrangement for mutual benefit eventually develops into a grudging respect and even friendship.

An action packed gem of a movie that addresses an important issue, Blood Diamond is DiCaprio’s best movie to date. Highly recommended to rent. Add to your list now.