Yesterday I saw an interesting english movie - “Blood Diamond” starring Leonardo dicaprio and Djimon Hounsou. This film was nominated for oscar awards in 2006. Essentially it is a look the diamond business from the african conflict zones (Some would argue there is no conflict zone, entire africa is the conflict zone!). Check out the following trailer,

Leonardo plays the role of a mercenary who trades arms for conflict diamonds. Djimon is a native fisherman looking for his family. Both team up to find Djimon’s family and to retrieve a rather “costly” diamond.

I like the movie, but not as much as apocalypto or the departed. But the movie is worth watching just to see leonardo’s superb performance.

The movie also contains some memorable quotes,

Soldier: Archer! You’re a dead man!
Archer: Yea, yea.

Archer: So you think because your intentions are good, they’ll spare you, huh?
Benjamin: My heart always told me that people are inherently good. My experience suggests otherwise. But what about you, Mr. Archer? In your long career as a journalist, would you say that people are mostly good?
Archer: No. I’d say they’re just people.
Benjamin: Exactly. It is what they do that makes them good or bad. A moment of love, even in a bad man, can give meaning to a life. None of us knows whose path will lead us to God.

According to wikipedia,

De Beers Group, which is the largest player in the diamond trade, has expressed reservations about the film, believing it could reduce public demand for diamonds. De Beers maintains the trade in conflict diamonds has been reduced from 4% to 1% by the Kimberley Process. It has been suggested the company pushed for the film to contain a disclaimer saying the events are fictional and in the past; however, De Beers has denied this.

In the movie, rebels are shown as barbarians and brutal. But the fact is in africa, government forces can be as bad or worse than the rebels. Or are you naive enough to believe that UN forces are angels when they go to africa? I wonder why so many people forget that any army is just a killing machine.

My rating : 7 out of 10.

PS: Do you know that if you resell your diamond jewellery you get only a small fraction of the original price?

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 27th, 2007 at 12:09 pm and is filed under Movies, Opinion, Videos. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.