A few years back I read the book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah in which Beah reflects on his time being forced to fight for the rebel army in the Sierra Leone Civil War as a kid. Being a history guy, I was captured by his recounts of life as a child soldier in the war-torn country off the east coast of Africa. Ever since reading that book, I’ve been interested in seeing the movie Blood Diamond, which also depicts the Sierra Leone Civil War in the same time setting. I finally watched it and wasn’t disappointed.

After an abundance of political unrest, civil war broke out in Sierra Leone in 1991. The movie’s title, Blood Diamond, refers to the diamonds mined in the diamond-rich areas of southern and eastern Sierra Leone. They were mined and sold to purchase weapons and finance the civil war, thereby popularly referred to as “conflict diamonds.” People were forced to mine these diamonds by the rebel RUF (Revolutionary United Front) group, as seen in the movie, and plenty of atrocities were committed by the group. Among the things the RUF did was cut off people’s hands to keep them from voting in upcoming elections and destroy villages and capture children to serve in their rebel army. It was these atrocities that made this movie really captivating to the viewer, especially to someone who enjoys learning history.

Blood Diamond, released in 2006, stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou, both of whom were nominated for Academy Award Best Actor and Supporting Actor, respectively. Hounsou plays the character named Solomon Vandy, who is a local Sierra Leone fisherman captured by the RUF and forced to mine diamonds for the benefit of the rebel group. DiCaprio plays the character named Danny Archer, who is a Rhodesian gunrunner that smuggles diamonds across the border to Liberia to eventually sell to a corrupt South African mining executive (Rudolph van de Kaap) for profit. When Vandy discovers a very large diamond under the RUF’s watch, he secretly buries it in the ground on the river bank before being caught and killed by the brutal RUF warlord. Archer later becomes involved and wants the diamond more than anything so he can sell it to make enough money to move off the “Godforsaken continent of Africa forever.”

While trying to persuade Solomon Vandy to trust him, Archer and Vandy search for Vandy’s family whom he hasn’t seen since he was captured by the RUF. It is then he discovers the RUF raided his family’s village and captured his young son and are forcing him to fight and kill in their army. Desperate to regain his son and reunite with his family, Vandy tells Archer he will lead him to the spot where he buried the diamond and give it to Archer if he promised to help him regain his family. The two have several encounters with the RUF on their journey, which lead to pretty suspenseful parts. The journey concludes with everyone wanting that diamond, including Archer, Archer’s former employer, and the RUF warlord who had once ruled over Vandy.

I really enjoyed this movie. For me, what made this movie special was that it portrayed powerful, actual events that occurred just twenty years ago. While the script was made for Hollywood, it still drove home how terrible things were in Sierra Leone, largely in part due to the blood diamonds. It was interesting to see how Vandy’s young son was brainwashed and transformed into a hardened killing machine from an innocent, smart little boy. Everything about that matched up with what I read from Ishmael Beah’s book and his first hand accounts of being a child soldier. So personally, I really enjoyed the historical aspect of the movie. But there’s also some good action parts, as well as parts that will have you holding your breath. The acting was phenomenal by DiCaprio and Hounsou, which is why they were both nominated for awards. Outside of those two, the acting was ok and nothing special. The plot was good enough to keep anyone interested though, history lovers or not. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone looking for a thriller and/or wanting to learn a little bit of not-so-distant history.

Rating: 4.00/5

Garett

Movie Review: Blood Diamond