Blood Diamond

Initially I was put off by the trailers, which made it feel like some action flick that was trying to be worldly like Babel with its setting in Africa. And then there were brief shots of Leo speaking in a funny accent. But as I have learned in the past (i.e. Gladiator), some trailers are bad, but the movie is good, sometimes even great (but my theory still remains: if you have a bad trailer, then you probably have a bad movie). Blood Diamond takes the recent civil wars in Sierra Leone with resonating results. It does have a typical formula (guy with baggage has selfish motives + innocent civilian wanting to save his family + hot, yet smart journalist who flirts a lot, especially with her unbuttoned shirts = a love story subplot for only two of them), but it inserts unpredictable turns that prevent it from becoming one big cliché. I was actually quite relieved when certain events that one might expect didn’t happen. It also has shock value, although it’s not the kind that one would enjoy as it shows some disturbing images of genocide and kids being trained to do unthinkable things. More importantly, it’s thought provoking and makes one think a lot about the dirty diamond industry and the unfortunate souls that suffer just so that some yuppie can give his bride a fatty jewel to show their “love” for one another.