Blood Diamond review

DVD of the week – Released on DVD this week, Blood Diamond is a gripping, action-packed African adventure, which isn’t as tinged with as much Hollywood sentimentalism as you might expect.

The jungles of Sierra Leone, blighted by brutal dictatorships and savaged by civil war, provides the unsettling backdrop for Blood Diamond – a captivating film which sees smugglers, child soldiers and a pink precious stone act as the protagonists in a touching, but no less adrenalin-inducing, story.

While Edward Zwick’s African adventure deals with some controversial political subjects, the Hollywood director has rejected the temptation to sugar-coat the story, instead providing action, entertainment and some breathtakingly good acting in equal measures – without patronising the viewer or political situation for a second.

Danny Archer (played by a convincingly ‘Rhodesian’ accented – for the most part – Leonardo DiCaprio) is a cynical white African soldier-turned-diamond-smuggler, who strikes up a selfishly-motivated deal with Solomon Vandy, a Mende fisherman (impressively played by Djimon Hounsou). Archer says he will help Vandy find his war-scattered family if he shares the spoils of a rare diamond with him. They are joined in their search – for the stone and separated family – by an American journalist Maddy Bowen (played by a slightly clichéd scantily-clad Jennifer Connelly), who agrees to help if Archer reveals to her how conflict diamonds make their way into the hands of Western corporations.

Blood Diamond is a unique gem in the Hollywood movie mines – a well-meaning, well-made action-flick that will entertain as well as inform. Politics may take a back seat, but as well as offering an enlightening insight into conflict diamonds, the socially-conscious campaigning is balanced by very watchable action sequences, stomach-churning brutality and stunningly beautiful scenery. By the closing scenes of the eight-starred film you will be thinking twice about bagging yourself some eight carat bling.

Film: Blood Diamond
Directed by: Edward Zwick
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly
Classification: 15
Release date: 18 June 2007
Available from: Amazon for £8.97

Michelle Byrne
18 June 2007