◊^^^Synopsis^^^◊

An ex-mercenary turned smuggler (Leonardo DiCaprio) and a Mende fisherman (Djimon Hounsou) join forces, with the help of a journalist (Jenifer Connelly), amid the dangerous, unstable, bloody and volatile civil war engulfing Sierra Leone, Africa, in 1999. They join for two desperate quests: recovering an extremely rare; large pink diamond with inestimable value, a “Blood Diamond”, and rescuing the fisherman’s son who has been captured and conscripted by brutal rebel forces, who are engaged in a vicious and bloody war where no rules apply against the army and government as they fight across the beautiful landscape.

This urgent, deeply moving picture combines riveting human stories and exhilarating action into harrowing and equally thrilling realistic depiction of the bloody and brutal civil war in Sierra Leone less than 10 years ago with immensely insightful effect.

This multiple academy award winning film is one you mustn’t miss.

“The best film of the year” – Guy Davies

◊^^^Opinion^^^◊

First of all, I really must applaud the script. The script is the foundation for every film and in most cases the acting has to hold it together. The script in this film is so brilliant that it doesn’t need acting to hold it together and it would be very difficult to have gone wrong when making the movie unless they tried to. Straight from the off like a good page turner the script lures you in until you are very quickly hooked into the quite literally nails biting action. The writers are very clever and know exactly how to hit the spot when it comes to thrilling action, drama and horrific truths and for this reason the film is very hard hitting. The film is bold and explores realistic emotions and events that are shocking and aren’t common in a war film. In most war films you have lots blood, but usually this blood is all meaningless without feeling. This film extremely successfully captures the hatred and brutality that causes the bloodshed unlike many war films it is very vicious. I do believe such words such as brutal can be overused and therefore not as meaningful as they used to, but I urge you to remember the origins of the word brutal and its true meaning when applied to conflict.

The film as I have already mentioned is very bold and not afraid to push the boundaries to illustrate some of the appalling facts of war. For instance it is the first film I have seen that has child soldiers committing excessively violent acts. The harsh and shocking reality is that this if truth be told happened on a day to day basis less then 10 years ago, in a so called civilised world. For this reason and the films historical accuracy in particular makes it all the more terrifying and effectively induces the film to be tremendously hard hitting.

As the film is set in a period of conflict there is serious need for this to be realistically represented on screen and this was achieved brilliantly as the special effects produced truly remarkable results. The weapons used in the film were flawless and the actors had obviously had large amounts of training to help them construct a more convincing performance when handling a weapon which was a great benefit to the films realism. There were several explosions during the film which looked simply mind blowing and superb for building the tense atmosphere of danger and conflict throughout the film. The special effects reach a colossal peak in one of the final scenes, which I don’t wish to spoil, were from what I could see every manual pyrotechnic effect under the sun was used establishing a supremely effective scene and end product.

I found the messages on the film had quite a large effect on me. It makes me feel very guilty even though I would have been quite young that I had no idea what so ever of any such war happening in 1999, all I was interested in was Man U winning the Treble.

There is one slight problem I have with the film, the ending. The ending, although is very effective and allows morality and principles to shine through the fog of violence and injustice, is very annoying and without giving to much away there could have been an simple alternative. Basically what I am saying is the ending was very good but it didn’t end how I wanted it to and it may not be the same for you.

The film was simply brilliant and certainly the most gripping film of the year, if not the best film of the year.

The cinematography and acting in this visually outstanding masterpiece were just as exceptional as the script and special effects and I will come onto them now.

◊^^^Acting^^^◊

The acting the film is almost faultless. The cast as a whole does a brilliant job and I honestly can’t think of any bad acting or even mediocre performances for that matter. The main characters were especially talented and contributed extremely convincing performances to the overall product. The best aspect of the acting was how incredibly credible and true to life it is. There was a very hateful and sinister performance by David Harewood, played the suitably named Captain Poison. Djimon Hounsou was extremely harrowing and impressive alongside DiCaprio in his desperate search for his family.

Jennifer Connelly who plays a journalist who urgently wants to spread the harrowing situation that Sierra Leone were facing to the world in attempt to educate others of the circumstances in order to try to gain aid to help the country to resolve its problems. She gives a very believable performance and was very good. Although someone should have really told her that you cant take a picture with a camera when looking down the viewfinder with two eyes open as you go cross eyed and can’t see anything. Usually I would say that this sort of opinion was far too critical, but in this case where she has to take several photographs during the movie and she is a “top” journalist, you have to be able to hole and use a camera realistically. Although it must be said that she makes up for this slightly as she has very nice eyes so therefore the shot, although incorrect, is visually interesting when she takes a picture. This may be deliberate and I am missing something… who knows?

As always in a film there is an acting performance that usually stands out and in this film, it’s DiCaprio. Now with DiCaprio, you never really know what you’re going to get. He always gives a memorable performance but not always for the fight reasons. In Blood Diamond, it is for the right reasons. He is superb and effectively adds to the tension and atmosphere of the film. His expressions are very thoughtful and he offers lots of versatility throughout the film as his characters morals gradually change as he starts to humanise after his stretch in the army and become more of a normal person with normal feelings. Although his performance was brilliant, I do have one slight problem with it. His accent was rather temperamental and is very convincingly South African in parts and very dodgy in others to the extent that it sounds Australian.

In conclusion there was a very convincing overall acting performance by the cast as a whole. With many moments of individual flare and emotion that helped to make the film as good as it is.

◊^^^Picture and Sound Quality^^^◊

The cinematography is brilliant from the start. Shots of landscape in the film really stand out because of their intense beauty. The starting images are ones of extreme splendour and tranquillity as the fisherman go to work in their boats at sea while the golden morning sun sparkles on the calm water.

In my opinion the strongest aspect of the film is the cinematography which is extremely intelligent and well constructed utilizes large amounts of contrast, especially distinction images of total calm and beauty contrasted with images of extreme violence and brutality. This technique is extremely effective and introduces new emotions onto the audience and adds to the shocking effect the film employs onto the audience, therefore adding hugely to the motion pictures overall success.

The actual picture quality is very sharp with a good aspect ratio. The techniques, sensitivity and skill of the director of photography are truly astonishing and are crucial in creating this visually stunning masterpiece.

As for the sound, it is very good but at the same time average because most sound on film now is clear and impressive, giving a realistic reflection of real life sound. The use of music in the film was interesting and effective in building the atmosphere for certain scenes. The music in the film was very well judged to fit the scene which was very impressive, especially in moments of action and tranquillity. Most of the music in the film was noticeably African and therefore culturally correct which was exceptionally effective in building the correct continental persona alongside the acting, script and cinematography. The sound in the film was therefore very interesting and used particularly successfully throughout the film.

In conclusion both the picture and sound quality in Blood Diamond are exceptional and massively benefit the final product.

◊^^^Film Summary^^^◊

All in all the film is nearly faultless on all fronts: superbly written, directed, acted, photographed and filmed. It rightly deserved all 5 of its Academy Awards Nominations. I very worried that the film, despite all this, will be overlooked when it really should go down in film history eventually as a classic. Hopefully my suspicions about the film being swept under the rug over the years is wrong and my children will be watching it in 20 years time as I watch brilliant classic films now such as The Shawshank Redemption, Die Hard or Apocalypse Now. Blood Diamond is a fantastic action packed, edge of your seat and quite literally for me, as I have already mentioned, nail biting experience which I would recommend to anyone.

◊^^^DVD Package^^^◊

The DVD is very well presented with an interesting compilation on the front cover of images of the main characters with a backdrop of hostility in Sierra Leone. It has the title in large capital and bold font. The font itself is creative and seems to represent something that has been worn down, possibly the war. It also lets you know of its 5 Academy Awards on the front cover. I feel that the cover gives a reasonable depiction of what you can expect from the film, at least basic idea of what the film is about for this modern world where time for some reason always seems to be of the essence so not many people can be at all bothered to read the blurb on the back.

As for the back the DVD sports the usual information you would expect to be provided on the back. Such as: Blurb, Photos, Information about runtime etc, Cast, Special Features… etc.

◊^^^Special Features^^^◊

• Several trailers on the disc for other films and the theatrical trailer for Blood Diamond
• Still picture DVD menu with African music
• Still picture scene selection
• Directors Commentary
• Languages: English and Italian
• Subtitles: English, English forced, Arabic, Hebrew, Icelandic, Italian and Italian forced.

◊^^^DVD Summary^^^◊

To sum up, Blood Diamond is a well presented DVD with a marginally improved standard of special features when compared to other DVD’s. The film has a simple, interesting and most importantly easy to navigate DVD menu. The sound and picture quality as I have already discussed on the DVD was also exceptional.

In conclusion, it’s certainly worth the money. Speaking of money, I will come onto that now.

◊^^^Price & Availability^^^◊

Amazon.co.uk: New and Sealed – £11.98 – 25 Used/New from - £9.29
eBay.co.uk: Avg. Buy it Now - £10 – 29 Results

◊^^^Technical Details^^^◊

Certificate: 15
Duration: 137 mins
Year of Release: 2006
Genre: Adventure / Drama / Thriller
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1 (Widescreen)
Region: 2

Director(s): Edward Zwick
Writer(s): Charles Leavitt (Script and Storyboard)

Cheers,

© Guy Davies,15, (www.freewebs.com/firelightphotography) 2007