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Let's go all the way back to 1999...a long trip, I know. Perhaps a slightly longer trip would be to 1999 in the heart of Sierra Leone, a land far removed from our comfortable and free way of life. This was the height of the diamond rush and the aftershock of a U.S. embargo on diamonds taken from troubled areas. A time when smugglers could be made rich by even one good find and when peace-loving civilians were dragged into slavery to find those diamonds.

The story begins in a small fishing village where a father and son are discussing school and the boy's future academic potential. The stillness is shattered by a group of militants rampaging into town and shooting down everything that moves. The man, Solomon (Djimon Hounsou) manages to get his family out of harm's way, but is then captured himself and dragged off to dig for diamonds.

Solomon does his work with no knowledge of his family's whereabouts or well-being, and knowing that any disobedience is enough to get himself killed. The threat of instant death is not enough when he discovers a rose-pink diamond the size of his thumb. He puts the diamond between his toes and sneaks off to bury it in the forest. Before he has a chance to do anything with it, though, the slavers are overthrown and Solomon is imprisoned until the victors can establish that he is not an enemy.

While in prison, a smuggler named Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) overhears one of Solomon's former captors trying to get Solomon to admit to having had the exceptional diamond. Ever the opportunist, Archer arranges Solomon's release and then strives to con him into showing him the whereabouts of the diamond in return for finding his family.

An attractive but nosy American reporter (Jennifer Connelly) jumps into the fray and the trio embarks on a deadly mission through constant gunfire and hostile natives to find the stone, and find Solomon's family to bring them to the United States.

This movie was quite intriguing. I had seen numerous previews for it before finally breaking down and watching it on one of the movie channels and, overall, am very glad I did.

First off, the setting was fairly convincing - despite several filming goofs - and the experienced cast really brought the story to life. However, I can't say I was very impressed by the script. Blood Diamond
is certainly a film that relies on its awesome special effects and talented actors to make it work, the dialog was fairly simple and oftentimes added little to the scene.

As can probably be guessed by the above story description, this film does have a large amount of violence as well as foul language and is certainly unsuitable for children because of that. I do not know how closely this film follows any sort of true events other than the historical setting, but true or not the events are certainly believable and make for a compelling story. The pacing of this film does have its hitches, though...a lot of action in the beginning, middle, and end but an inordinate amount of running around dodging bullets in between. If you don't mind the drags on the plot this is an exceedingly enjoyable movie.

The acting was pretty good, at least the half a dozen main characters put forth an excellent performance and everyone else had little enough screen time not to have too big of an impact on the movie. The filming was done in Cape Town, South Africa, offering amazing views that are complimented by excellent special effects and LOTS of explosions.

Overall, it is pretty easy to see why this film had numerous Oscar nominations and several wins. The effects, the plot, and most of the acting were all top-notch and certainly worth seeing.

Learn more about this author, Rebecca Brown.
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