Yeah, yeah, i know he won the Oscar for The Revenant but that is not his best film. To be honest I really don't think he would have won that one if it weren't for lobbying of the Academy and the fact that there weren't a lot of really good movies that year. However, this is about Blood Diamond, and I believe it is not just one of his best, but one of THE best.
The movie takes place in Western Africa, mostly in Sierra Leone. The country has erupted into civil was and the "RUF" insurgents have created slaves out of the population in order to continue their war efforts. I don't know if this is presented in an accurate manor, but the RUF seem to be terrorizing the population into compliance through fear, rather than liberating them from a tyrannical government.
Dicaprio's character Danny Archer is a gun-runner, a bit of a selfish scumbag that has no qualms about what the weapons he supplies are being used for. He meets Soloman Vandy (Dijmon Hansou) as they both just happen to be locked up in the same holding cell. Danny learns that Soloman has access to a massive diamond and he attempts to befriend Soloman purely for the sake of getting the stone from him.
Soloman denies the existance of the stone but under duress when RUF is invading the city, Archer, who is a survivalist with access to weapons convinces Vandy that he will give Danny the stone provided he helps him rescue his family who he was seperated from earlier on in the film.
They end up getting connected with Jenner Connoly's character, who has special press access because she is an investigative reporter and the 3 of them together, use one another to achieve their own ends.
I dont' want to spoil the film but here is the reasons I think the movie is great and that if Leo was ever going to win an award it should have been for this.
- it is based on real events. All the characters are fake but the diamond conflicts of West Africa are / were a very real thing
- According to friends of mine that come from modern day Zimbabwe, DiCaprio's accent is spot on. He must have practiced for a long time to accomplish that
- generally speaking, i don't find Dicaprio believable as an adult. I am pretty big critic of his and i catch a bunch of flack for that from other people. However, he was very good in this.
- there are no dull moments
- there is a sound (and true) message inside the film
- while it is somewhat predictable in a Hollywood sense, it does have some surprises.
Overall, I give this film an 8.5 / 10 . I don't know how they could have improved it because it is pretty polished, it just isn't a perfect film. Close but not quite.
