Blood Diamond
Haha. No, I didn't give Hopkins an award for that movie, although I don't think he was terrible in it. Sure, his character's turn late in the film was a little much, but for the most part his performance wasn't a disgrace by any means. I enjoyed Pitt, Ormond, Quinn, and Thomas. They were convincing and affecting. I know big is not necessarily good, but I enjoyed the flow of the film, got caught up in its story and thought it was quite good.
Besides, Edward Zwick did get a directing nomination from the Golden Globes. He must have done something right if his film also garnered three technical Oscar nods, including a win for cinematographer John Toll.
Also I think he got good performances out of Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai and Matthew Broderick in Glory, both of whom have very uneven acting careers in my opinion.
Besides, Edward Zwick did get a directing nomination from the Golden Globes. He must have done something right if his film also garnered three technical Oscar nods, including a win for cinematographer John Toll.
Also I think he got good performances out of Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai and Matthew Broderick in Glory, both of whom have very uneven acting careers in my opinion.
"Because here’s the thing about life: There’s no accounting for what fate will deal you. Some days when you need a hand. There are other days when we’re called to lend a hand." -- President Joe Biden, 01/20/2021
I really am not sure you know what directing is, criddic.
When every performance feels like it's from a different planet, that's BAD director. Lord knows, in the year of Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction', Kieslowski's 'Red', 'Burton's 'Ed Wood', Peter Jackson's 'Heavenly Creatures', and 'Hoop Dreams', there were better DIRECTED movies. Just because a movie is big doesn't mean it's well directed. In fact, often times when a movie is what we'll call 'Legends of the Fall'-big, it means there's a #### load of catering and additional camera ops and grips and enough people to make it a WAAAAAAY more comfortable shoot than anything Peter Jackson went through on 'Heavenly Creatures'.
The thing is: Edward Zwick is a company man. When you watch 'Legends of the Fall' (as you should again; it's something of a disaster), you are watching something that every one of his higher ups has had a say in. There's nothing personal about it, so you never get the impression that you're watching anything pressing. And although I haven't watched his process of directing, what I'll say is the only truly good performances he's elicited have been from actors who are just fantastic always. Like Denzel Washington, who could not have ####ed up the part if he was held at gun point. But he brings out the worst in his middling actors like Brad Pitt, who just stares blankly and lets his hair do his acting; Julia Ormond, who is completely un####able in that movie, which is kind of amazing; and Anthony Hopkins, who is at his absolute, falling down worst in this film, and that's largely because Zwick didn't know what to tell him to get him to where he needed to be. DON'T FIRE BACK "Well, I liked the bravado that Hopkins have to the part" or whatever, because the performance is a total, hammy mess. I'm sorry, but I have no idea if Hopkins won five Criddic awards for the part.
A few years ago, I might have given his movie(s) more slack, but when a big Hollywood movie is as vanilla and empty as his, life is too short for Edward Zwick films.
When every performance feels like it's from a different planet, that's BAD director. Lord knows, in the year of Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction', Kieslowski's 'Red', 'Burton's 'Ed Wood', Peter Jackson's 'Heavenly Creatures', and 'Hoop Dreams', there were better DIRECTED movies. Just because a movie is big doesn't mean it's well directed. In fact, often times when a movie is what we'll call 'Legends of the Fall'-big, it means there's a #### load of catering and additional camera ops and grips and enough people to make it a WAAAAAAY more comfortable shoot than anything Peter Jackson went through on 'Heavenly Creatures'.
The thing is: Edward Zwick is a company man. When you watch 'Legends of the Fall' (as you should again; it's something of a disaster), you are watching something that every one of his higher ups has had a say in. There's nothing personal about it, so you never get the impression that you're watching anything pressing. And although I haven't watched his process of directing, what I'll say is the only truly good performances he's elicited have been from actors who are just fantastic always. Like Denzel Washington, who could not have ####ed up the part if he was held at gun point. But he brings out the worst in his middling actors like Brad Pitt, who just stares blankly and lets his hair do his acting; Julia Ormond, who is completely un####able in that movie, which is kind of amazing; and Anthony Hopkins, who is at his absolute, falling down worst in this film, and that's largely because Zwick didn't know what to tell him to get him to where he needed to be. DON'T FIRE BACK "Well, I liked the bravado that Hopkins have to the part" or whatever, because the performance is a total, hammy mess. I'm sorry, but I have no idea if Hopkins won five Criddic awards for the part.
A few years ago, I might have given his movie(s) more slack, but when a big Hollywood movie is as vanilla and empty as his, life is too short for Edward Zwick films.
"How's the despair?"
At the time, I loved the sweep of Legends of the Fall, which featured some very good performances. However, it won only three Criddics Awards (Picture, Director, Score) out of 10 nominations. Today I may have gone for another nominee, like Ed Wood, but I still enjoy Zwick's film. Zwick's films have done very well by me. In addition to Glory and Legends of the Fall, nominations have gone to Courage Under Fire and The Last Samurai in major categories like acting. He also garnered two producing nods for Traffic and Shakespeare in Love.Penelope wrote:criddic3 wrote:In other words: it's an Edward Zwick film.
I like Edward Zwick films. Two of them received Best Picture Criddic Awards: Glory and Legends of the Fall.
Dear God in Heaven! I'm willing to cut you some slack for Glory, probably Zwick's finest effort, but Legends of the Fall is one of the most laughably awful films of the '90s!
As for Blood Diamond, Sabin's review confirms what I feared just from the trailer--it looks as if it might have a shot as one of this decade's most laughably awful films.
His new film isn't nearly as accomplished, but it does feature solid acting, some good action sequences and a not-always convincingly handled heavy-handed "message." I gave it 3 stars, although I seriously considered 2 1/2. Because i enjoyed it (always the most important element of film viewing), it worked for me through the three principle players' performances.
"Because here’s the thing about life: There’s no accounting for what fate will deal you. Some days when you need a hand. There are other days when we’re called to lend a hand." -- President Joe Biden, 01/20/2021
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Talk about your mixed bag. This is a very engaging, sometimes trenchant - though unmistakably Hollywood - film with a fine cast. Unfortunately, it is the worst screenplay of the year. The worst! And I thought Hotel Rwanda had the last word of spoon-feeding international affairs to make it palatable for dummies, but Blood Diamond goes it several times better (or do I mean worse), and it's more galling here because unlike Rwanda, at least this film was made by someone who has some feel for the cinematic. What a waste.
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
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Blood Diamond
Steven Rosen in Los Angeles
Screendaily
Dir: Edward Zwick. US. 2006. 138mins.
A well-written, well-acted and provocative political action thriller, Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond provokes its audience into thinking about the impact of diamond lust on the Third World. But its relentlessly realistic depiction of contemporary African warfare - and the way diamond smuggling funds it - is so horrific that it could be hard-pushed to be regarded as broad Friday night multiplex entertainment, despite featuring Leonardo DiCaprio.
Zwick has crafted several classily produced big-star movies about conflict past and present, such as The Last Samurai (2003, $457m globally), although that starred Tom Cruise and valued visual opulence above strong narrative. For better commercial comparisons, look towards Zwick’s The Siege (1998, about domestic terrorism, $116m worldwide) and Courage Under Fire (1996, about the first Iraq War, $100 worldwide), as well as Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down (2001, $173m worldwide), another contemporary African warfare movie.
Blood Diamond could rival returns for Scott’s feature, especially given DiCaprio’s renewed profile following the recent The Departed. Broad upscale audiences may respond if the first major Hollywood production to address the diamond trade’s dirty side draws enough related news coverage. Certainly it will outpace lower-budget, less action-orientated features that have covered genocide in Africa, such as Hotel Rwanda (2004, which took $23.5m of its $33.6m worldwide gross from the US) and The Last King Of Scotland (2006), which are more character studies than adventure yarns.
Rolling out in the US on Dec 8, Blood Diamond is released in major international markets – where films starring DiCaprio usually take the balance of their box-office – in January and early February.
The film opens in Sierra Leone in 1999, during a brutal civil war in which thuggish rebels lop off the hands of children as a terror tactic. Roguish Danny Archer (DiCaprio) sneaks rebel-mined diamonds out of the country into Liberia, then on to a diamond company in London that stores them in a vault so as to control the market. Streetwise and world-weary, Archer knows the dangers of his trade all too well: in America diamonds mean bling bling, but in Africa they only cause bling bang.
Captured in the Sierra Leonese capital Freetown and jailed, Archer overhears that fellow inmate Solomon Vandy (Hounsou) is hiding a huge, pinkish diamond he discovered while forced to work for the rebels.
On release the two men form a reluctant alliance to locate the stone, Archer for its potential profit, Solomon in order to secure the release of his family from a refugee camp. Meanwhile, a muckraking journalist/photographer (Connelly) attaches herself to the pair and develops a relationship with Danny.
Edward Zwick studied Sorious Samura's documentary Cry Freetown – about the conflict in Sierra Leone – before he began shooting Blood Diamond and the grim depiction of violence evidenced here is shatteringly, exhaustingly naturalistic.
During the battle/slaughter scenes rockets are fired at low-level close-range targets with frightening results. The rebels, including their child soldiers, cruise around in vehicles like stoned-out zombies, fitted out with bizarre costumes, blaring radios and guns.
In the past Hollywood has been accused of romanticising the Third World in its portrayals of life – but it is something that Zwick has studiously avoided here. Certainly Blood Diamond has more narrative complexity and character development than the likes of Black Hawk Down, especially in how it expresses its political ideas. Yet the violence occurs so frequently and reliably that it eventually starts to acquire a rhythmic intensity not dissimilar to Ridley Scott’s feature.
Leonardo DiCaprio, in his second fine performance this year after The Departed, is all stubble and believable southern African accent. He carries Blood Diamond as a sly, treacherous, even furiously dangerous, amoral man who slowly grows a conscience. At the same time his character is fully formed enough to be calm, reflective, noble and flirtatiously charming when called for. Such charm is especially on display in his relationship with Jennifer Connelly, with who DiCaprio shows good chemistry, although her part is relatively one-dimensional in its definition.
With his shaven head and deep-voiced gravity, Djimon Hounsou acquits himself well – he may be an outside shot for supporting actor awards consideration – but Charles Leavitt's otherwise-astute screenplay sometimes renders him too noble for his circumstances. Elsewhere Michael Sheen - Tony Blair in The Queen – has an amusing cameo as the London diamond rep.
Photography – the film was mainly shot in Mozambique – is fast paced, as if the camera is darting around to avoid being blown up. Cinematographer Eduardo Serra contrasts the ramshackle, squalid crowdedness of urban areas with the beautiful vistas and horizons of the forested countryside, while a dusty refugee camp resembles a prison colony on the moon.
The drama is underscored by James Newton Howard's inspiring and mournful score, which mixes orchestral music with African choral voices.
Steven Rosen in Los Angeles
Screendaily
Dir: Edward Zwick. US. 2006. 138mins.
A well-written, well-acted and provocative political action thriller, Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond provokes its audience into thinking about the impact of diamond lust on the Third World. But its relentlessly realistic depiction of contemporary African warfare - and the way diamond smuggling funds it - is so horrific that it could be hard-pushed to be regarded as broad Friday night multiplex entertainment, despite featuring Leonardo DiCaprio.
Zwick has crafted several classily produced big-star movies about conflict past and present, such as The Last Samurai (2003, $457m globally), although that starred Tom Cruise and valued visual opulence above strong narrative. For better commercial comparisons, look towards Zwick’s The Siege (1998, about domestic terrorism, $116m worldwide) and Courage Under Fire (1996, about the first Iraq War, $100 worldwide), as well as Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down (2001, $173m worldwide), another contemporary African warfare movie.
Blood Diamond could rival returns for Scott’s feature, especially given DiCaprio’s renewed profile following the recent The Departed. Broad upscale audiences may respond if the first major Hollywood production to address the diamond trade’s dirty side draws enough related news coverage. Certainly it will outpace lower-budget, less action-orientated features that have covered genocide in Africa, such as Hotel Rwanda (2004, which took $23.5m of its $33.6m worldwide gross from the US) and The Last King Of Scotland (2006), which are more character studies than adventure yarns.
Rolling out in the US on Dec 8, Blood Diamond is released in major international markets – where films starring DiCaprio usually take the balance of their box-office – in January and early February.
The film opens in Sierra Leone in 1999, during a brutal civil war in which thuggish rebels lop off the hands of children as a terror tactic. Roguish Danny Archer (DiCaprio) sneaks rebel-mined diamonds out of the country into Liberia, then on to a diamond company in London that stores them in a vault so as to control the market. Streetwise and world-weary, Archer knows the dangers of his trade all too well: in America diamonds mean bling bling, but in Africa they only cause bling bang.
Captured in the Sierra Leonese capital Freetown and jailed, Archer overhears that fellow inmate Solomon Vandy (Hounsou) is hiding a huge, pinkish diamond he discovered while forced to work for the rebels.
On release the two men form a reluctant alliance to locate the stone, Archer for its potential profit, Solomon in order to secure the release of his family from a refugee camp. Meanwhile, a muckraking journalist/photographer (Connelly) attaches herself to the pair and develops a relationship with Danny.
Edward Zwick studied Sorious Samura's documentary Cry Freetown – about the conflict in Sierra Leone – before he began shooting Blood Diamond and the grim depiction of violence evidenced here is shatteringly, exhaustingly naturalistic.
During the battle/slaughter scenes rockets are fired at low-level close-range targets with frightening results. The rebels, including their child soldiers, cruise around in vehicles like stoned-out zombies, fitted out with bizarre costumes, blaring radios and guns.
In the past Hollywood has been accused of romanticising the Third World in its portrayals of life – but it is something that Zwick has studiously avoided here. Certainly Blood Diamond has more narrative complexity and character development than the likes of Black Hawk Down, especially in how it expresses its political ideas. Yet the violence occurs so frequently and reliably that it eventually starts to acquire a rhythmic intensity not dissimilar to Ridley Scott’s feature.
Leonardo DiCaprio, in his second fine performance this year after The Departed, is all stubble and believable southern African accent. He carries Blood Diamond as a sly, treacherous, even furiously dangerous, amoral man who slowly grows a conscience. At the same time his character is fully formed enough to be calm, reflective, noble and flirtatiously charming when called for. Such charm is especially on display in his relationship with Jennifer Connelly, with who DiCaprio shows good chemistry, although her part is relatively one-dimensional in its definition.
With his shaven head and deep-voiced gravity, Djimon Hounsou acquits himself well – he may be an outside shot for supporting actor awards consideration – but Charles Leavitt's otherwise-astute screenplay sometimes renders him too noble for his circumstances. Elsewhere Michael Sheen - Tony Blair in The Queen – has an amusing cameo as the London diamond rep.
Photography – the film was mainly shot in Mozambique – is fast paced, as if the camera is darting around to avoid being blown up. Cinematographer Eduardo Serra contrasts the ramshackle, squalid crowdedness of urban areas with the beautiful vistas and horizons of the forested countryside, while a dusty refugee camp resembles a prison colony on the moon.
The drama is underscored by James Newton Howard's inspiring and mournful score, which mixes orchestral music with African choral voices.
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
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Blood Diamond
By Sheri Linden
Hollywood Reporter
In the ambitious, sweeping and sometimes moving "Blood Diamond," Edward Zwick aims to fuse recent history with mass-scale entertainment. That's nothing new for Hollywood, and the story of the wages of capitalism and war on the African continent -- and their connection to the American consumer -- is an important, ever-timely one. But while getting across the facts it wants to tell, the film seldom transcends the awkwardness of its edutainment blend. The ultra-cinematic heroics feel too large and dazzling for the material, the classic movie tropes too formulaic, and the illuminating effect of all of it is more mechanical than organic.
But to the unlikely role of a Bogart-esque reluctant hero, Leonardo DiCaprio brings an intensity that compels even when the script falters. Far beyond the lure of a serious action-adventure yarn, his star power will help "Blood Diamond" mine boxoffice gold.
DiCaprio plays Danny Archer, a native of Zimbabwe, which he insists on still calling Rhodesia. An amoral existentialist whose backstory becomes clear in the late going, Danny is a former mercenary soldier. In 1999 Sierra Leone, he makes his living trading arms for diamonds and smuggling the so-called conflict diamonds out of the civil-war-torn country, his chief client being the dominant Van De Kamp company. While in jail for smuggling, he learns of a big pink diamond -- a rare stone that would be worth a fortune -- and determines to find it.
The stone in question was discovered and hidden by Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a fisherman forced to work in the diamond fields after the rebel army of the Revolutionary United Front slaughtered or mutilated nearly everyone in his village. Out of prison and barely escaping explosive warfare in the streets of Freetown, Solomon and Danny become partners in a quest to retrieve the stone.
Of crucial help to them as they venture through rebel territory is Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), an American journalist and admitted crisis junkie -- and a would-be pickup for Danny, until she tries to elicit his help as a source. But everyone's cutting a deal here, and eventually Danny promises that after they've gotten the diamond -- which she expects him to steal from Solomon -- he'll go on record with the details she needs to nail the story about Van De Kamp's complicity in crimes against the African people.
Also bent on finding the stone are sadistic rebel commander Captain Poison (David Harewood, oozing evil) and the coolly calculating Colonel (Arnold Vosloo), Danny's one-time mentor as a soldier-for-hire. The outsize diamond is everyone's ticket out, a liberation as payday. But no one is as motivated as the noble and decent Solomon, for whom the rock represents a way to get back his family. In the brutal fate that has befallen Sierra Leone, the RUF has turned his 12-year-old son, Dia (the very good Kagiso Kuypers), into a brainwashed, drug-fueled child soldier, while Solomon's wife and two younger children languish in a refugee camp in Guinea. One of the most effective and harrowing sequences juxtaposes scenes of Solomon, posing as a cameraman and helping a wounded child, with images of his son learning to kill.
Hitting all the expected big-story beats with an abundance of incident, "Blood Diamond" feels long well before its midway point. For much of the first half, Charles Leavitt's screenplay struggles to fill us in: Almost every line of dialogue, whether in the mouth of a central character or a Group of Eight conferee, is a history lesson or political lecture. With her intriguingly independent reporter forced to deliver a good share of the educational material, Connelly suffers most.
Leavitt's script invests far more complexity in the white characters. But despite the too-simple contrast between the mercenary Danny and the idealistic Solomon, who believes his country can again be a peaceful paradise, the film finds its emotional pulse only in second-half scenes that strip away the rest of the action to focus on these two disparate Africans -- and two fine actors. Hounsou's depth surpasses the two-dimensional conception of his role, and DiCaprio taps into unexpected ferocity in a performance of sure instincts.
At its best, the film is a portrait of madness -- the madness of the unchecked quest for Africa's riches, European industrialists reaping the rewards while whole nations are ravaged. Captured in the handsome widescreen camerawork of Eduardo Serra, that rich and varied landscape is a character in its own right.
By Sheri Linden
Hollywood Reporter
In the ambitious, sweeping and sometimes moving "Blood Diamond," Edward Zwick aims to fuse recent history with mass-scale entertainment. That's nothing new for Hollywood, and the story of the wages of capitalism and war on the African continent -- and their connection to the American consumer -- is an important, ever-timely one. But while getting across the facts it wants to tell, the film seldom transcends the awkwardness of its edutainment blend. The ultra-cinematic heroics feel too large and dazzling for the material, the classic movie tropes too formulaic, and the illuminating effect of all of it is more mechanical than organic.
But to the unlikely role of a Bogart-esque reluctant hero, Leonardo DiCaprio brings an intensity that compels even when the script falters. Far beyond the lure of a serious action-adventure yarn, his star power will help "Blood Diamond" mine boxoffice gold.
DiCaprio plays Danny Archer, a native of Zimbabwe, which he insists on still calling Rhodesia. An amoral existentialist whose backstory becomes clear in the late going, Danny is a former mercenary soldier. In 1999 Sierra Leone, he makes his living trading arms for diamonds and smuggling the so-called conflict diamonds out of the civil-war-torn country, his chief client being the dominant Van De Kamp company. While in jail for smuggling, he learns of a big pink diamond -- a rare stone that would be worth a fortune -- and determines to find it.
The stone in question was discovered and hidden by Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a fisherman forced to work in the diamond fields after the rebel army of the Revolutionary United Front slaughtered or mutilated nearly everyone in his village. Out of prison and barely escaping explosive warfare in the streets of Freetown, Solomon and Danny become partners in a quest to retrieve the stone.
Of crucial help to them as they venture through rebel territory is Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), an American journalist and admitted crisis junkie -- and a would-be pickup for Danny, until she tries to elicit his help as a source. But everyone's cutting a deal here, and eventually Danny promises that after they've gotten the diamond -- which she expects him to steal from Solomon -- he'll go on record with the details she needs to nail the story about Van De Kamp's complicity in crimes against the African people.
Also bent on finding the stone are sadistic rebel commander Captain Poison (David Harewood, oozing evil) and the coolly calculating Colonel (Arnold Vosloo), Danny's one-time mentor as a soldier-for-hire. The outsize diamond is everyone's ticket out, a liberation as payday. But no one is as motivated as the noble and decent Solomon, for whom the rock represents a way to get back his family. In the brutal fate that has befallen Sierra Leone, the RUF has turned his 12-year-old son, Dia (the very good Kagiso Kuypers), into a brainwashed, drug-fueled child soldier, while Solomon's wife and two younger children languish in a refugee camp in Guinea. One of the most effective and harrowing sequences juxtaposes scenes of Solomon, posing as a cameraman and helping a wounded child, with images of his son learning to kill.
Hitting all the expected big-story beats with an abundance of incident, "Blood Diamond" feels long well before its midway point. For much of the first half, Charles Leavitt's screenplay struggles to fill us in: Almost every line of dialogue, whether in the mouth of a central character or a Group of Eight conferee, is a history lesson or political lecture. With her intriguingly independent reporter forced to deliver a good share of the educational material, Connelly suffers most.
Leavitt's script invests far more complexity in the white characters. But despite the too-simple contrast between the mercenary Danny and the idealistic Solomon, who believes his country can again be a peaceful paradise, the film finds its emotional pulse only in second-half scenes that strip away the rest of the action to focus on these two disparate Africans -- and two fine actors. Hounsou's depth surpasses the two-dimensional conception of his role, and DiCaprio taps into unexpected ferocity in a performance of sure instincts.
At its best, the film is a portrait of madness -- the madness of the unchecked quest for Africa's riches, European industrialists reaping the rewards while whole nations are ravaged. Captured in the handsome widescreen camerawork of Eduardo Serra, that rich and varied landscape is a character in its own right.
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
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Blood Diamond
By BRIAN LOWRY
Variety
Having already roiled the diamond industry, "Blood Diamond" arrives with the best of intentions, harrowing sequences but ultimately mixed results. Another sweeping, at times heartbreaking view of the horrors inflicted upon Africa (in this case, Sierra Leone's civil war), it's also a quest for a fabulous stone that Hitchcock would have called a MacGuffin -- namely, an ice-cube-sized pink diamond. Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou deliver powerful moments, but those moments are liberally spaced along a lengthy trek -- one that periodically pauses to scold the U.S. audience for complicity in the region's exploitation. As such, overseas appeal might outstrip the yield from domestic mines.
Set in 1999, rebels wage war against Sierra Leone's government, and the movie quickly establishes the brutal toll exacted on innocent bystanders: Rebels raid a village occupied by the fisherman Solomon Vandy (Hounsou), lopping off arms, murdering women and children, and sending his family fleeing.
Solomon himself is taken hostage and forced to labor in the mining camps, which generate millions of dollars used to finance the arms trade and thus perpetuate Africa's bloody nightmare. Before escaping during a government assault, however, Solomon unearths and hides an enormous, invaluable diamond, word of which reaches smuggler Danny Archer (DiCaprio), who prefers the label "soldier of fortune."
Danny convinces Solomon that the only way to reunite his family is to sell the diamond and use the proceeds. Meanwhile, an American journalist, Maddy (Jennifer Connelly), wants the Afrikaner's aid in exposing trafficking in "conflict stones" -- diamonds plucked from war-torn areas and laundered through legitimate Western merchants.
"I'm using him, and you're using me, and that is how it works, isn't it?" Danny snaps at Maddy, who is clearly on hand to stir pangs of conscience as much as offer a potential love interest, given that the burgeoning war leaves scant time for romance.
Director Ed Zwick and writer Charles Leavitt perhaps strike their most lingering chord via a subplot involving Solomon's son, Dia (Kagiso Kuypers), who is brought into rebel custody and transformed into a "child soldier." The indoctrination includes teaching youths to kill almost casually, and the sight of children ruthlessly brandishing automatic weapons becomes one of the film's more indelible images.
In the end, though, Zwick is trying to juggle several balls at once and does so with a heavy hand -- delivering a history lesson on the sordid resource exploitation of Africa from within and from abroad, expounding on the role of wanton consumerism (always nice right before the holidays), and still developing a traditional quest thriller that will theoretically open Danny's blinkered eyes to the suffering around him. It's a tremendous amount of ground to cover, and the film's last third is less than wholly convincing or satisfying, unable to deliver on its early promise.
DiCaprio nevertheless again acquits himself admirably after "The Departed," bringing a roguish charm to Danny. Hounsou is also characteristically strong as the movie's moral center -- thrust into a familiar position regarding cinematic Africa (think "Hotel Rwanda") as well as his own resume (think "Gladiator"), separated from and struggling to safeguard his family, as chaos erupts all around him.
Filmed almost entirely in Africa, pic captures a big, adventurous scope, including sweeping vistas of lush jungle, large-scale bursts of action and a massive refugee camp poignantly described as "an entire country made homeless."
Africa's enduring sorrow is ripe for drama, but "Blood Diamond" is, finally, a fitting metaphor for the gems: Potentially brilliant from a distance, but upon closer inspection, one likely will see the flaws.
By BRIAN LOWRY
Variety
Having already roiled the diamond industry, "Blood Diamond" arrives with the best of intentions, harrowing sequences but ultimately mixed results. Another sweeping, at times heartbreaking view of the horrors inflicted upon Africa (in this case, Sierra Leone's civil war), it's also a quest for a fabulous stone that Hitchcock would have called a MacGuffin -- namely, an ice-cube-sized pink diamond. Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou deliver powerful moments, but those moments are liberally spaced along a lengthy trek -- one that periodically pauses to scold the U.S. audience for complicity in the region's exploitation. As such, overseas appeal might outstrip the yield from domestic mines.
Set in 1999, rebels wage war against Sierra Leone's government, and the movie quickly establishes the brutal toll exacted on innocent bystanders: Rebels raid a village occupied by the fisherman Solomon Vandy (Hounsou), lopping off arms, murdering women and children, and sending his family fleeing.
Solomon himself is taken hostage and forced to labor in the mining camps, which generate millions of dollars used to finance the arms trade and thus perpetuate Africa's bloody nightmare. Before escaping during a government assault, however, Solomon unearths and hides an enormous, invaluable diamond, word of which reaches smuggler Danny Archer (DiCaprio), who prefers the label "soldier of fortune."
Danny convinces Solomon that the only way to reunite his family is to sell the diamond and use the proceeds. Meanwhile, an American journalist, Maddy (Jennifer Connelly), wants the Afrikaner's aid in exposing trafficking in "conflict stones" -- diamonds plucked from war-torn areas and laundered through legitimate Western merchants.
"I'm using him, and you're using me, and that is how it works, isn't it?" Danny snaps at Maddy, who is clearly on hand to stir pangs of conscience as much as offer a potential love interest, given that the burgeoning war leaves scant time for romance.
Director Ed Zwick and writer Charles Leavitt perhaps strike their most lingering chord via a subplot involving Solomon's son, Dia (Kagiso Kuypers), who is brought into rebel custody and transformed into a "child soldier." The indoctrination includes teaching youths to kill almost casually, and the sight of children ruthlessly brandishing automatic weapons becomes one of the film's more indelible images.
In the end, though, Zwick is trying to juggle several balls at once and does so with a heavy hand -- delivering a history lesson on the sordid resource exploitation of Africa from within and from abroad, expounding on the role of wanton consumerism (always nice right before the holidays), and still developing a traditional quest thriller that will theoretically open Danny's blinkered eyes to the suffering around him. It's a tremendous amount of ground to cover, and the film's last third is less than wholly convincing or satisfying, unable to deliver on its early promise.
DiCaprio nevertheless again acquits himself admirably after "The Departed," bringing a roguish charm to Danny. Hounsou is also characteristically strong as the movie's moral center -- thrust into a familiar position regarding cinematic Africa (think "Hotel Rwanda") as well as his own resume (think "Gladiator"), separated from and struggling to safeguard his family, as chaos erupts all around him.
Filmed almost entirely in Africa, pic captures a big, adventurous scope, including sweeping vistas of lush jungle, large-scale bursts of action and a massive refugee camp poignantly described as "an entire country made homeless."
Africa's enduring sorrow is ripe for drama, but "Blood Diamond" is, finally, a fitting metaphor for the gems: Potentially brilliant from a distance, but upon closer inspection, one likely will see the flaws.
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
Win Butler
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Dear God in Heaven! I'm willing to cut you some slack for Glory, probably Zwick's finest effort, but Legends of the Fall is one of the most laughably awful films of the '90s!criddic3 wrote:In other words: it's an Edward Zwick film.
I like Edward Zwick films. Two of them received Best Picture Criddic Awards: Glory and Legends of the Fall.
As for Blood Diamond, Sabin's review confirms what I feared just from the trailer--it looks as if it might have a shot as one of this decade's most laughably awful films.
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
In other words: it's an Edward Zwick film.
I like Edward Zwick films. Two of them received Best Picture Criddic Awards: Glory and Legends of the Fall.
"Because here’s the thing about life: There’s no accounting for what fate will deal you. Some days when you need a hand. There are other days when we’re called to lend a hand." -- President Joe Biden, 01/20/2021
I attended a test screening of 'Blood Diamond'. Write this puppy out of every category. There's no way it's in contention for anything. This is a slapped together Hollywood production, too many cooks in the kitchen who want to please everybody. It's an adventure! It's a gritty look at child soldiers! It's a subtle romance! It's a buddy movie! It's...nothing.
DiCaprio's accent is a total mess. My friend thought it was English, I thought it was Australian. We were both wrong. He's worse here than in 'Gangs of New York.' Hounsou is decent, but it's retread for him and while his character certainly should be the lead he's delegated to a near thankless supporting role. Connelly is wasted in a perfunctory and tame romantic interest role. Dull cinematography, egregiously weak music (that, I'd imagine, they'll pump up), and long, long, long! In other words: it's an Edward Zwick film.
I expect this one to get bumped back.
DiCaprio's accent is a total mess. My friend thought it was English, I thought it was Australian. We were both wrong. He's worse here than in 'Gangs of New York.' Hounsou is decent, but it's retread for him and while his character certainly should be the lead he's delegated to a near thankless supporting role. Connelly is wasted in a perfunctory and tame romantic interest role. Dull cinematography, egregiously weak music (that, I'd imagine, they'll pump up), and long, long, long! In other words: it's an Edward Zwick film.
I expect this one to get bumped back.
"How's the despair?"