Blood Diamond Manages to Sparkle

Action, Adventure, a Little Romance, and a Conscience

I was excited to see the film "Blood Diamond' for several reasons. I wanted to see how Leonardo DiCaprio managed his role as a diamond smuggling mercenary. I wanted to see how the film presented the moral dilemmas surrounding the international diamond trade. I wanted to see the always interestingJennifer Connelly. And Djimon Hounsou, who I first became aware of from his performance in 'Gladiator." I wasn't disappointed.

The film is set in Sierra Leone during the late 90's, when the country was caught in the ravages of a civil war. A war that was funded in large part by "blood" or "conflict" diamonds. It's a war where the government troops are just slightly less bloodthirsty and vicious than the rebels, who recruit young boys and indoctrinate them into their "struggle." The movie chronicles this in an emotional and gritty way. David Harewood plays the rebel leader Captain Poison, a character with no conscience and less remorse.

Djimon Hounsou plays Solomon Vandy, a fisherman whose son Dia is "recruited' by the rebel army. The film takes us on his personal crusade to save his family and son from the disintegrating world around him. He must form a tenuous alliance with Danny Archer, the don't-give-a-damn mercenary who is interested in a particularly large diamond that he needs Vandy to lead him to. The interaction of those two characters is memorable. I can see nominations coming for Hounsou, and probably DiCaprio too. Vandy wants the diamond to help his family, Archer wants it to get him out of Africa. There is also the mercenary colonel played by Arnold Vosloo who-of course-wants the diamond too.