Blood Diamond (film)

Blood Diamond
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Edward Zwick
Produced by	Marshall Herskovitz Graham King Paula Weinstein Edward Zwick
Written by	Charles Leavitt
Starring	Leonardo DiCaprio Djimon Hounsou Jennifer Connelly Michael Sheen Arnold Vosloo
Music by	James Newton Howard
Cinematography	Eduardo Serra
Editing by	Steven Rosenblum
Studio	The Bedford Falls, Virtual Studios
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	December 8, 2006 (2006-12-08)
Running time	143 minutes
Country	United States Germany
Language	English Mende Krio Afrikaans
Budget	$100 million
Box office	$171,407,179

Blood Diamond is a 2006 political thriller film co-produced and directed by Edward Zwick and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou. The title refers to blood diamonds, which are diamonds mined in African war zones and sold to finance conflicts, and thereby profit warlords and diamond companies across the world.

Set during the Sierra Leone Civil War in 1992-2002, the film shows a country torn apart by the struggle between government soldiers and rebel forces.^[1] It also portrays many of the atrocities of that war, including the rebels' amputation of people's hands to discourage them from voting in upcoming elections.

The film's ending, in which a conference is held concerning blood diamonds, is in reference to an actual meeting that took place in Kimberley, South Africa in 2000 and led to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which seeks to certify the origin of diamonds in order to curb the trade in conflict diamonds. The film received mixed, but generally favourable reviews.

Plot

In 1999 Mende fisherman Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) was captured by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels during a raid and subsequent massacre of his village in Shenge, Sierra Leone. Instead of cutting off his hands, the rebels put him to work as a miner in the diamond fields under the command of warlord Captain Poison (David Harewood), while his son Dia (Kagiso Kuypers) is conscripted into the RUF and brainwashed into becoming a hardened, cold-blooded, killer. Captain Poison uses the diamonds to fund their war effort, often trading them directly for automatic weapons. One day, Solomon recovers an enormous pink diamond while working. Attempting to keep it for himself, he buries it in a nearby riverbank, unobserved by the guards. An infuriated Poison discovers the truth but before he can act on this knowledge, the Sierra Leonean Army assaults the mines. Vandy, the captain, and most of Poison's fighters are captured and subsequently imprisoned in Freetown.

Meanwhile, Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), a white Rhodesian gunrunner (from today's Zimbabwe), is arrested attempting to smuggle diamonds into Liberia. Archer had been transporting the diamonds to an Afrikaner mercenary, Colonel Coetzee (Arnold Vosloo), his former commander in the 32nd Battalion, the most decorated unit of the South African Border War. Coetzee is in turn employed by Tiara Diamond Company executive Rudolph Van de Kaap (Marius Weyers) and his deputy, Rupert Simmons (Michael Sheen). While being held in the same Freetown prison as Solomon Vandy, Archer learns of the pink diamond's existence.

Archer manages to arrange his own release from prison and also pulls the strings necessary for Solomon to be freed, hoping that he will lead him to this valuable diamond. In the meantime, the latter gets a job working at a Freetown Hotel while Archer visits his contacts in South Africa, including Colonel Coetzee. The Afrikaner is angry and frustrated that their previous smuggling operation was foiled. He demands that he receive some of the profits from this pink diamond once it is eventually recovered. Danny remarks that he plans to use his share of the money to leave the Dark Continent once and for all. However, Coetzee disagrees, referencing a Shona legend that the soil of Africa is red because of all the blood that has been spilled by people fighting over the land. He implies that both of them will never leave Africa because, after all, Africa is in their blood.

Returning to Sierra Leone, Archer locates Solomon and offers to help him find his long lost family, especially Dia, if he agrees to lead him to the diamond. While they discuss the issue, however, the RUF rebels launch a massive attack on Freetown and capture it following a bloody battle. Archer and Solomon survive the initial carnage long enough to steal away from the ruined city by night.

In Forécariah, Guinea, American journalist and humanitarian Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), allows Archer and Vandy to infiltrate the Kono with her press convoy in exchange for information on her current story exposing the flow of "blood diamonds" out of Africa. Archer promptly provides proof to Maddy that Van de Kaap and his Tiara Diamond Company control the market by illegally stockpiling vast amounts of diamonds to drive up demand. But trouble catches up with Danny and Solomon yet again when the press convoy comes under attack by murderous insurgents. Together with Bowen, they narrowly escape and find their way to an encampment where Colonel Coetzee and his private army are preparing for battle. Coetzee intends to get his hands on the pink diamond no matter whom he must fight to get it.

Archer and Vandy eventually leave the camp while Maddy boards a plane evacuating foreigners out of the conflict zone. The duo reach Captain Poison's diamond fields, which has been recaptured by the rebels. Solomon then makes his own ill-fated bid to rescue a brainwashed Dia, who refuses to acknowledge his father. Archer radios in the mine's coordinates to Coetzee's mercenaries, who subsequently launch an air strike on Poison's men via an Mi-24 Helicopter Gunship. Amidst the chaos, Solomon finds and kills Poison with a shovel. As the outgunned and now leaderless RUF force tries to flee into the jungle, they are slaughtered in an ambush by a mercenary strike team on the ground. With the battle won, Colonel Coetzee has Dia rounded up and holds him at gunpoint. He threatens to murder the boy unless Solomon retrieves the pink diamond immediately. After it is unearthed, Danny Archer realizes that the colonel is planning to execute Vandy and his son anyway once he is in possession of the valuable stone. He preemptively kills Coetzee and two of his soldiers, only to be mortally wounded in the process. Dia then takes advantage of the situation to hold a pistol on his father and the injured Archer. After an emotional discussion, however, Solomon manages to convince his son of his own retained innocence and Dia agrees to return home with him, having overcome his mental conditioning.

The three of them flee from the remaining mercenaries and make their way from the valley towards an airstrip atop a nearby ridge where Archer has prearranged to rendezvous with a local pilot, Nabil (Jimi Mistry), in his GA8 Airvan. Before they reach the ridge, Danny collapses from his wounds and hands over the diamond to Solomon, instructing him to take it and use its profits for himself and the benefit of his family. Archer then uses an assault rifle to hold off their pursuers as the two others escape in the plane.

Bleeding and barely able to breathe, Archer uses his satellite phone to make a final call to Maddy Bowen and ask her to assist Solomon. Realizing that he is dying, Maddy expresses her sorrow that she is not able to be there with him in person. The Rhodesian smuggler replies calmly that he is already where he needs to be, then grasps a handful of red African soil stained with his own blood. Soil in hand, he dies peacefully looking out upon a beautiful Sierra Leonean landscape.

Shortly afterwards, Solomon meets with Rupert Simmons, who promises that the Tiara Diamond Company will arrange for his family to be brought to England in exchange for the diamond. Maddy secretly photographs the deal and later publishes a magazine article titled "Blood Diamonds: A Trail of Terror from the Jungles to the Jeweller's" in which she exposes the trade in "conflict" or "blood" diamonds, detailing Rudolph Van de Kaap's criminal actions and ruining him and the TDC. Later, Solomon is seen preparing to tell of his experiences at a conference on blood diamonds in Kimberley, South Africa. His entrance to the conference meeting hall is met with a standing ovation as the film ends.

Cast

• Leonardo DiCaprio as Daniel "Danny" Archer
• Djimon Hounsou as Solomon Vandy
• Jennifer Connelly as Maddy Bowen
• Kagiso Kuypers as Dia Vandy
• Arnold Vosloo as Colonel Coetzee
• Antony Coleman as Cordell Brown
• Benu Mabhena as Jassie Vandy
• Anointing Lukola as N'Yanda Vandy
• David Harewood as Captain Poison
• Basil Wallace as Benjamin Kapanay
• Jimi Mistry as Nabil
• Michael Sheen as Rupert Simmons
• Marius Weyers as Rudolf Van De Kaap
• Stephen Collins as Ambassador Walker
• Ntare Mwine as M'Ed
• Ato Essandoh as Captain Rambo

Release

Critical response

Though Blood Diamond received mixed reviews from critics, it has won popular acclaim through the internet. However, Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 62% based on reviews from 210 critics, or an average score of 6.3/10, with the site's consensus stating; "Blood Diamond overcomes poor storytelling with its biting commentary and fine performances.".^[2] Metacritic gave the film an average score of 64% based on reviews from 39 critics.^[3]

Controversies

When the plot of the film became public, De Beers, the South African diamond mining and trading company, maintained that the trade in conflict diamonds had been reduced from 4% to 1% of total purchases by the Kimberley Process. De Beers denied a suggestion that the company had pushed for the film to contain a disclaimer to the effect that the events it portrayed were fictional and outdated.

More recently, the New York Post reported that Warner Bros. Pictures had promised that 27 actors who were amputees would receive prosthetics once the film shoot was done. Several months after the completion of filming, however, the prosthetics had not been supplied, and the studio reportedly told the amputees they had to wait until the December 2006 release of the film to maximise public relations. In the meantime, a private charity from the Eastern Cape in South Africa assisted in supplying prosthetics to the amputees.

These allegations were countered by an article in L.A. Weekly, which stated that Warner Bros. had not promised the prosthetics, but that the cast and crew raised between $200,000 and $400,000 to begin a "Blood Diamond Fund," which was then matched by Warner Bros. and "administered by a Maputo-based international accountancy firm under the supervision of Laws and João Ribeiro, the production managers in Mozambique."

Awards

The film was nominated for five Academy Awards:^[4]

• Actor in a Leading Role (DiCaprio)
• Actor in a Supporting Role (Hounsou)
• Film Editing
• Sound Editing
• Sound Mixing (Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer and Ivan Sharrock)

Soundtrack

Blood Diamond: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Film score by James Newton Howard
Released	December 19, 2006
Genre	Contemporary classical
Length	61:26
Label	Varèse Sarabande
Producer	James Newton Howard
James Newton Howard chronology
Lady in the Water Blood Diamond The Lookout

Blood Diamond: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack to the movie of the same name. It was composed by James Newton Howard, and won the Soundtrack of the Year at the 2008 Classical BRIT Awards.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Blood Diamond Titles"	1:32
2.	"Crossing the Bridge"	1:41
3.	"Village Attack"	1:52
4.	"RUF Kidnaps Dia"	3:02
5.	"Archer & Solomon Hike"	1:55
6.	"Maddy & Archer"	1:56
7.	"Solomon Finds Family"	2:09
8.	"Fall of Freetown"	4:45
9.	"Did You Bury It?"	1:36
10.	"Archer Sells Diamond"	1:40
11.	"Goodbyes"	2:40
12.	"Your Son is Gone"	1:21
13.	"Diamond Mine Bombed"	4:31
14.	"Solomon's Helping Hand"	1:11
15.	"G8 Conference"	2:36
16.	"Solomon & Archer Escape"	2:12
17.	"I Can Carry You"	1:30
18.	"Your Mother Loves You"	2:24
19.	"Thought I'd Never Call?"	3:56
20.	"London"	2:38
21.	"Solomon Vandy"	2:11
22.	"Ankala" (Performed by Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars)	4:12
23.	"Baai" (Performed by Emmanuel Jal with Abd El Gadir Salim)	4:37
24.	"When Da Dawgs Come Out to Play" (Performed by Bai Burea, featuring Masta Kent and Bullet Rhymes)	3:19
Total length:		61:26

Home video

The DVD was released in Region 1 format on March 20, 2007. Both a single-disc and a two-disc version are available. High Definition versions on HD DVD and Blu-ray have also been released with a R rating in the USA and a rating of MA in Australia.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Blood diamond
• Child soldiers
• Mercenaries
• Postcolonialism
• Sierra Leone Civil War

References

1. ^ Berardinelli, James. "Review: Blood Diamond". ReelViews. http://www.reelviews.net/movies/b/blood_diamond.html. Retrieved 2010-12-27. 
2. ^ "Blood Diamond". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/blood_diamond. Retrieved 2011-01-01. 
3. ^ "Blood Diamond Reviews, Ratings, Credits". Metacritic. CBS. http://www.metacritic.com/movie/blood-diamond. Retrieved 2010-11-26. 
4. ^ "The 79th Academy Awards (2007) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/79th-winners.html. Retrieved 2011-11-20. 

External links

• Official website
• Blood Diamond at the Internet Movie Database
• Blood Diamond at AllRovi
• Blood Diamond at Rotten Tomatoes
• Blood Diamond at Metacritic
• Blood Diamond at Box Office Mojo