Blood Diamond

Movies that try to educate are almost always on shaky ground. No matter how noble the cause, it can be an interesting juggling act to try first and foremost to entertain your audience, introduce them to something they know nothing about, and then sway their opinion on it. This movie just smacks of good intentions, but makes the usual mistake of trying to do too much - anything written about Africa tends to do that. It's an unfortunate failure with Blood Diamond.

The story unfolds with the stereotypical white mercenary (Leonardo DiCaprio) joining forces with the stereotypical noble, but dim, savage (Djimon Hounsou) to locate a priceless pink diamond. They are, of course, constantly bumping into the stereotypical white journalist (Jennifer Connelly,) hordes of deranged insurgents, and deranged government soldiers and there will be lots and lots of explosions, and executions, and bullets raining. (Extra credit will be given for somehow avoiding the inevitable mercenary/journalist bedroom romp.) It all ends with the stereotypical solemn government hearings on the evils of insert your cause here.

Although it's entertaining enough for action fans and garnered six Academy Award nods (including Best Actor and Best Supporting for the two guys above,) this screenplay deserved a rewrite or a better edit. The African continent has enough content to drive anyone mad, but trying to squeeze in storyline about how conflict diamonds are funding terrorism AND how they're acquired (slavery) AND moved (smuggling) AND how they brainwash kids into soldiers AND the continuing genocidal violence AND the politics of all of this is a bit much. They lost me early on. AND DiCaprio was better in The Departed.

See the website here.