Blood Diamond-the review

After my disastrous experience with Hostel, I was literally keeping myself away from seeing films without going thru reviews. I was planning to see The Number 23 which is going to be released on 23, February, because I liked those ‘intriguing’ kind of things. So last Saturday when my husband suggested seeing a film, I was hesitating.

But it was already 8 pm, and there wasn’t any my-type-kiddie films showing, as that time. The nearest schedule was for Blood Diamond, and even its name gave me a kind of eerie feeling. But we didn’t have much choice and just asked the lady in the counter, which one she suggested. She told us, that Blood Diamond is said to be good, though she hasn’t seen it. And I was ready to go out, if this one is going to be gruesome.

The only time I loved Leonardo DiCaprio was in Titanic. I thought he was handsome, that’s all. I never knew he could do such a wonderful job, in acting. This movie touched my mind and soul. It was one of those “true movies” kinds. May be that’s the reason, to think that it wasn’t pure fiction, always give me goose bumps.

Based on the background of Sierra Leone Civil War,(I didn’t even know that there was an African country called Sierra Leone !) and the illegal diamonds mined from there, it was just a realization on how bloody and gruesome, the story behind those glittering diamonds can be. How those rocks from the depth of African mines, reached the ring finger of rich women, especially in US and Europe, where the strength of a relationship is weighed by the carat of engagement or wedding ring. And where a relationship can be simply torn out by throwing the ring out of your finger!

Though they say “diamonds are girls’ best friends”, I have never worn a diamond in my life and was never fascinated by them. But this movie, actually made me think. It’s not about just diamonds. It’s about the values, different human beings possess, at different points of their lives. How a single thing can induce different values in different people’s lives for Caprio (money), for Djimon Hounsou (family) and for Jennifer Connelly (sensational news). And once they get together, how their values are changed!

I was touched by the film. There’s a dialogue in which it’s said that the African soil is red because of the blood from the natives who fought against each other for different reasons, including diamonds. It’s just not any usual movie that seems to commercialize African poverty. It just says how the natural resources from a country are being exploited by other nations, while the natives are made to fight with each other for nothing.

Though it ended with the death of Caprio (yea in Titanic, too), this movie was there in my mind, even after the 1.5 hrs inside the theatre.

One movie in which I didn’t close my eyes out of fear and my husband didn’t close his eyes out of boredom. And that itself makes this one, different.

Blood Diamond