Let's go completely way back to 1999...a lengthy trip. Possibly a little longer trip would be to 1999 in the heart of Sierra Leone, a land far separated from our comfy and free way of life. This was the elevation of the diamond rush and the impact of a U.S. embargo on diamonds taken from distressed areas. A period when smugglers could be made wealthy by even one good finds as well as when peace-loving civilians were dragged into slavery to locate those diamonds.
The story starts in a little fishing village where a father and son are talking about school and the boy's future academic prospect. The silence is shattered by a group of militants storming into town and shooting down all that moves. The man, Solomon (Djimon Hounsou) manages to find his family out of harm's way, however is then captured himself plus hauled off to dig for diamonds.
Solomon does his labor with no information on his family's whereabouts or welfare and recognizing that whichever disobedience is adequate to get him killed. The risk of instant death is not sufficient when he notices a rose-pink diamond the size of his thumb. He places the diamond amid his toes and sneaks off to hide it in the forest. Before he has an opportunity to do anything with it, although, the slavers are conquered and Solomon is jailed until the victors can ascertain that he is not an opponent.
Whilst in prison, a smuggler called Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) hears one of Solomon's former captors attempting to get Solomon to confess to having had the extraordinary diamond. Always the opportunist, Archer organizeS Solomon's release and then attempts to con him into showing him the location of the diamond in return for locating his family.
An attractive however nosy American reporter (Jennifer Connelly) jumps into the conflict and the trio gets on a deadly mission through even gunfire and unfriendly natives to locate the stone, and locate Solomon's family to get them to the United States.
This movie was relatively interesting. I had seen many previews for it before ultimately breaking down as well as watching it on one of the movie channels and, in general, am extremely glad I did.
Foremost, the setting was quite realistic - despite some filming goofs - and the skilled cast truly brought the story to life. But, I can't say I was very stunned by the script. Blood Diamond is indeed a film that relies on its remarkable special effects and gifted actors to make it work; the dialog was rather straightforward and regularly added little to the scene.
As can most likely be presumed by the above story description, this film does have a huge amount of violence also as foul language plus is definitely inappropriate for children because of that. I do not recognize how closely this film follows any kind of true events more than the historical setting, however true or not the events are indeed believable and make for a convincing story. The pacing of this film does have its complications, although...lots of action in the start, center, and conclusion however an excessive amount of running around dodging bullets in between. If you don't mind the drags on the plot this is a very enjoyable movie.
The acting was pretty superior, at least the half a dozen major characters put forth an outstanding performance and everybody else had little adequate screen time not to have too big of a crash on the movie. The filming was prepared in Cape Town, South Africa, offering remarkable views that are complimented by exceptional special effects and plenty of explosions.
Generally, it is pretty simple to see why this film had many Oscar nominations and a number of wins. The special effects, the plot, and most of the acting were entirely top-notch and definitely worth seeing.
Very well reviewed. I definately will have to watch it.
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