Blood Diamond (film)

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Blood Diamond
Promotional Poster
Directed by	Edward Zwick
Produced by	Gillian Gorfil, Marshall Herskovitz, Graham King, Paula Weinstein, Edward Zwick
Written by	Charles Leavitt
Starring	Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, Djimon Hounsou, Michael Sheen, Arnold Vosloo
Music by	James Newton Howard
Cinematography	Eduardo Serra
Editing by	Steven Rosenblum
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	December 8, 2006 January 26, 2007
Running time	138 min
Country	United States
Language	English, Mende, Krio, Afrikaans
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Blood Diamond is an Academy Award-nominated 2006 film directed and produced by Edward Zwick. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou. The title refers to blood diamonds, which are diamonds mined in war zones and sold to finance the conflicts. On January 23, 2007, it was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Best Supporting Actor (Djimon Hounsou).

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Controversies
4 Location filming
5 Reviews
6 Awards and nominations
7 Chronological errors and anachronisms
8 Trivia
9 References
10 External links
- 10.1 Trailers
- 10.2 Reviews

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Set in the Sierra Leone Civil War in 1999, the film portrays a country torn apart by the struggle between government soldiers and brutal rebel forces.^[1] The film portrays many of the atrocities including rebels cutting off people's hands to stop them from voting in upcoming elections.

The film begins with the capture of Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a fisherman, by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels. Separated from his family, Solomon is enslaved to work in the diamond fields under the command of Captain Poison (David Harewood). The RUF use the diamonds to fund their war effort often trading them directly for arms. While working in the RUF diamond fields as a forced labourer, Solomon finds a large diamond of rare pink colouring. Moments before government troops launch an attack, Captain Poison sees Solomon with the diamond. Captain Poison is injured in the attack before he can get the stone and both he and Solomon are arrested. Meanwhile, Solomon's captive son Dia is kidnapped by the RUF and brainwashed to become a child soldier.

Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), a white mercenary from Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), trades arms for diamonds with an RUF commander. He is arrested when smuggling the diamonds into neighbouring Liberia. He was smuggling for a South African mercenary named Colonel Coetzee (Arnold Vosloo) in turn employed by South African diamond company executive Van De Kaap (Marius Weyers). Coetzee is Archer's former commander in 32 Battalion, the most decorated unit of the South African Border War made up of Angolan soldiers and white South African officers. Archer is desperate for a way to repay Colonel Coetzee for the diamonds he lost when he was arrested. While in prison he overhears Captain Poison ranting to Solomon about the discovery of the large diamond and makes plans to hunt down the stone. He arranges for Solomon's release from prison and offers to help him find his family in exchange for the diamond.

Archer meets Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), an American journalist covering the war and investigating the illegal diamond trade. Archer convinces Bowen to help him and Solomon find Solomon's family. They find his family in a UN refugee camp in Guinea inhabited by over a million refugees. Solomon's son Dia is not with them and Archer uses this to convince Solomon to help him find the diamond.

Archer and Solomon pretend to be journalists to accompany a convoy of journalists along with Bowen. The convoy is attacked and Archer, Solomon and Bowen escape and continue upon a perilous journey to claim the stone from its hiding place. After a demanding struggle, the men find the mining camp, again under RUF control, where Solomon discovered the large diamond. Here, Solomon is painfully reunited with his son Dia, who refuses to acknowledge him due to having been brainwashed by the rebels. A South African mercenary force under Colonel Coetzee, also after the diamond, dispatches the RUF rebels in a massive air raid; and, through a deal with Archer, forces Solomon into retrieving the stone. In a desperate battle, Archer kills Coetzee after realising that they would have killed both Archer and Solomon upon locating the diamond. At this point Dia holds Archer at gunpoint, but Solomon manages to convince him to side with them.

Unable to continue due to a gunshot wound he sustained in the fight, Archer gives Solomon the diamond and urges him to leave Sierra Leone to sell the diamond in London. He makes a final phone call to Bowen asking her to help Solomon as a last favour. With the help of Bowen, Solomon negotiates a large sum of money for the diamond and his wife and children. Bowen later publishes a magazine piece that exposes the trade in "conflict" or "blood" diamonds. The film ends with Solomon addressing a conference on blood diamonds in Kimberley, South Africa to describe his experience of the diamond mining and trade and accompanying war in Sierra Leone. This is in reference to a real meeting that took place in Kimberley in 2000 and led to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme which seeks to certify the origin of diamonds in order to curb the trade in conflict diamonds.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Leonardo DiCaprio	Danny Archer
Djimon Hounsou	Solomon Vandy
Jennifer Connelly	Maddy Bowen
Kagiso Kuypers	Dia Vandy
Benu Mabhena	Jassie Vandy
Arnold Vosloo	Colonel Coetzee
David Harewood	Capt. Poison
Antony Coleman	Cordell Brown
Jimi Mistry	Nabil
Basil Wallace	Benjamin Kapanay
Michael Sheen	Simmons
Ntare Mwine	M'Ed
Keithian Sammons	R.U.F. Soldier

[edit] Controversies

De Beers Group, which is the largest player in the diamond trade, has expressed reservations that the film will reduce public demand for diamonds. De Beers maintains the trade in conflict diamonds has been reduced from 4% to 1% by the Kimberley Process and it has been suggested the company pushed for the film to contain a disclaimer saying the events are fictional and in the past.^[2] De Beers has denied this.^[3]

More recently, the New York Post has reported Warner Bros. Pictures promised 27 child and teenage amputee extras for the film prosthetics upon completion of filming.^[3] Several months after the completion of filming, the prosthetics had not been supplied, and it was reported the studio told amputees they would wait until the December release of the film to maximize the public relation boost. In the meantime private charity Eastern Cape assisted in supplying prosthetics to the amputees.^[3]

Teaser poster for Blood Diamond.

These allegations were countered by an article in L.A. Weekly where it was stated that Warner Bros. did not promise 27 children and teenage amputees prosthetics, but that the cast and crew raised between $200,000 to $400,000 to begin the "Blood Diamond Fund" which was then matched by Warner Bros. and "administered by a Maputo-based international accountancy firm under the supervision of Laws and João Ribeiro, the production managers in Mozambique.^[4]

The film comes in the midst of an upsurge in mass media promotion of the conflict diamond trade, also highlighted in the media by rapper Kanye West in his song "Diamonds from Sierra Leone," a VH1 documentary about current conditions in Sierra Leone called Bling, and a non-fiction expose called The Heartless Stone.

The film The Empire in Africa shows the other side of the story - claiming that the RUF was in fact fighting for the liberation of Sierra Leone and did not cause more abuse than the government and western armies.^[5]

[edit] Location filming

The film was shot on several locations in Africa such as South Africa's East Coast (Port Alfred) and Cape Town. Other parts were filmed in Maputo as well as other parts of Mozambique.^[6]

[edit] Reviews

This section is a stub. You can help by expanding it.

Richard Roeper called for the film to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture and gave the film 4 stars. As of February 2007, it has a 63% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, implying that 63% of reviews written about the movie have been positive. The current (25 February 2007) voter rating on IMDb is a 7.8 out of 10.^[7] UK website Mansized gave the film a very respectable four out of five stars, stating that "Blood Diamond is a 24 karat gem." ^[8]

[edit] Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

Nominated for Best Actor In A Leading Role - Leonardo DiCaprio
Nominated for Best Actor In A Supporting Role - Djimon Hounsou
Nominated for Best Sound Mixing
Nominated for Best Sound Editing
Nominated for Best Film Editing

Black Reel Awards:

Best Supporting Actor - Djimon Hounsou (won)

Critics Choice Awards:

Best Picture
Best Actor - Leonardo DiCaprio
Best Supporting Actor - Djimon Hounsou

Golden Globe Awards:

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama - Leonardo DiCaprio (nominated)

NAACP Image Awards:

Outstanding Motion Picture
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture - Djimon Hounsou (won)

National Board of Review Awards:

Top Ten Films of the Year
Best Supporting Actor - Djimon Hounsou (won)

Satellite Awards:

Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama - Leonardo DiCaprio (nominated)

Screen Actors Guild Awards:

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role - Leonardo DiCaprio (nominated)
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role - Djimon Hounsou (nominated)

[edit] Chronological errors and anachronisms

The plane seen early in the movie, a Gippsland GA8 Airvan, was not available for export sale during the late 1990s when the film is supposed to take place.

In a scene in London, a Mercedes articulated or 'bendy' London bus is seen in the background. Such vehicles were not introduced to London bus routes until 2004.

In the scene in Kono, one of the child soldiers is seen with a Game Boy Advance SP, which was released in 2003.

When Danny meets Colonel Coetzee in South Africa, advertisements for 3G networking can be seen.

When Danny and Solomon were hiding in the bushes while the RUF soliders were driving by at night, they were playing Tupac Shakur's "When I Get Free." This version of the song was from the 2001 album entitled Until the End of Time.

When Danny arrives to do business with Commander Zero, he encounters Commander Rambo, who wears a Texas-coloured Snoop Dogg Afroskull Tee under his military green shirt. This piece was fabricated by Alstyle Apparel & Activewear in 2004. Also with the help of this unique clothing he can be recognized later in Captain Poison's camp, revealing a casting goof.

Throughout the movie, the vehicles are driven on the left side of the road. Sierra Leone drives on the right, while filming locations South Africa and Mozambique drive on the left.

When Solomon goes fishing in the morning, the sun is shown to have risen over the sea. In reality, the sun would rise over land as it is on the West Coast.

Despite the location filming in Africa, several North American birdsongs can be recognized in the soundtrack, including the Eastern Wood Pewee and the Black-throated Blue Warbler. These must have been mixed in by a sound man during later editing.

DiCaprio's character claims that the Shona people of Zimbabwe refer to white people as 'mukiwa'. This is not true, as the word 'mukiwa' is actually from the Ndebele people. The Shona call the white people 'murungu'

Maddy sees a cheetah running near the jeep while she is travelling through Sierra Leone. Actually, there aren't cheetahs living nor reports that this species occurred ever in the country. It's also unlikely that Danny and Solomon could see elephants during their expedition to recover the pink diamond, unless those animals were near the border with Liberia.

In another scene in London, towards the end of the movie, while Solomon is walking with Maddy, a second-generation Lexus RX can be seen passing by them. This second-generation Lexus RX wasn't introduced until 2004.

In yet another scene in London, as Solomon just got out of the buyer's car, when he was talking to Maddy, a 2005 Volkswagen Passat can be seen in the background, moving.

The commander talks about a saying that the Shona people have, about being part of the soil of where you are born. There is no such saying amongst the Shona

[edit] Trivia

Leonardo DiCaprio has a tattoo of an African Buffalo with two crossed arrows on his shoulder, this is the unit emblem of 32 Battalion sometimes called the "Buffalo Battalion".
The character of Colonel Coetzee has several lines of Afrikaans dialogue, which is also actor Arnold Vosloo's first language.
The helicopter used for the air strike on the mining camp was a Russian Mil Mi-24 SuperHind Mk IV.
The UN helicopter that was ferrying the three main characters over the jungles was a Russian Mi-8MT/Mi-17, probably one of those used by the Russian UN peacekeeping air group in Sierra-Leone^[9] or those chartered by the World Food Programme.^[10]
The transport airplane used to evacuate the character of Jennifer Connelly was a Russian 4-engined strategic airlifter Ilyushin Il-76 which is in widespread use in eastern Europe, Asia and Africa.
The South African mercenary involvement is based loosely on the involvement of Executive Outcomes in Sierra Leone in 1994.^{[citation needed]}
Krio is the creole language used early in the film between Danny Archer and Commander Zero. Soloman Vandy's son is named Dia, which means "expensive" in Krio.
DiCaprio's character claims that if he found the diamond he would leave the continent and never come back. He also played the character of Howard Hughes in The Aviator, in which he also claims that if his plane (the Spruce Goose) doesn't fly, he would leave the US and never come back.
The song "Shine On 'Em", by rapper Nas, is played during the credits at the end.
Djimon Hounsou plays Solomon Vandy, a Mende tribesman. In the movie Amistad he plays the role of Cinque, chief of the Mende tribe.