Verdict:
Blood Diamond is about a quick little diamond smuggler, Danny Archer, played by Di Caprio, partnering with a local man from Sierra Leone played by Djimon Hounsou, as the former is looking to get rich and the latter looking to save his family.
The camera captures the dirt of the human conflict and the heat of the jungle, showing every drop of sweat in sharp contrast. Action is not too shaky, and you can usually tell what is going on. It helps that Africa is photogenic. You don’t need to work hard to shoot it. It just needs to show up. You can tell the movie uses some computer special effects on occasion but it does so sparingly enough. it looks OK.
The soundtrack is a bit of everything. You get the dramatic orchestral music, which sounded rather generic, but you also get some local folk music and French-speaking rap. It sets a good atmosphere and is not overbearing.
Di Caprio’s acting is not…pleasant, but that is probably the point, since he is playing a sleazy white opportunist. He is supposed to be one of those typical anti-heroes who is hardened and opportunistic on the outside but has a good heart on the inside. Sometimes he is convincing. Other times not so much.
The conversations are memorable thanks to occasional good writing, with many little nuggets to be found. In some cases, the dialogue exellently fleshes out the the background of the various characters, especially Danny Archer himself. In other cases, it might not be brilliant if you read the script, but Di Caprio sells it really well.
There is a problem. There is something dishonest about Blood Diamond’s nature that negatively affects its story, and I am going to try and pinpoint it for you.
There is this one shot, a brief scene, that encompasses what is wrong with this movie. A female character is sorrowfully looking at a refugee camp, as the movie is trying to convince you how horrible the humanitarian crisis is, but at the same time her shirt is unbuttoned just far enough for you to see her side-boob. She is standing there in the foreground together with the main protagonist of this film – a blond white guy. Their black companion, who’s been searching for his family all this time, is in the background and out of focus.
The movie shows how bad the civil violence is, but at the same time, the main protagonist is a white guy who, of course, happens to be an ex-soldier and who can gun down faceless Africans like he’s chewing bubble-gum….and of course he is given a photogenic white love interest, even though the story does not call for it at all. This movie has a hard time delivering its solemn message because it insists on retaining elements of a typical western action movie. Once you watch about ten minutes of this film, you can pretty much predict the rest of it by yourself.
And so, the narrative does not flow well, making choices that feel odd, because some choices belong in a movie that is serious about its material and other choices belong in a light-hearted adventure flick. It wants to be Schindler’s List and Romancing the Stone at the same time.
But… It is entertaining. If you want a well put together action movie with an exotic tint, this will do.