'Blood Diamond' mines power, beauty of Africa

Robert Denerstein, Rocky Mountain News

Friday, December 8, 2006

In 1999, a devastating civil war erupted in the African nation of Sierra Leone. Partly at issue: control of the country's lucrative diamond trade.

The sale of so-called "conflict diamonds" became a source of international shame. Profits from such sales were used to finance armed struggle that often reached horrific extremes.

Such is the harrowing backdrop for director Edward Zwick's Blood Diamond, a movie that tries to mix raw violence with displays of social conscience; it's hard-core moviemaking with a tortured soul.

A routine story - an amoral diamond smuggler (Leonardo DiCaprio) faces a crisis of conscience - receives a boost from the lush African settings and from Zwick's ability to make us feel the impact of every violent scene.

DiCaprio stars as Danny Archer, a 31-year-old soldier who grew up in Zimbabwe, the former Rhodesia. Danny joined the South African army and fought in Angola. He became disillusioned, and decided to use his skills and military contacts to further his own financial ends.

For Danny, the violence and corruption he finds in Africa are as inevitable as the heat. He seems to regard African politics as a kind of incurable disease. Well-played by a bulked-up DiCaprio, Danny joins the long line of characters who make the treacherous journey from amorality to responsibility. Think Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca.

Zwick delivers moments of blistering intensity as he builds his movie around Danny and Solomon (Djimon Hounsou), a victim of rebel violence.

Solomon's story has emblematic weight. An innocent family man, he's sent off to pan for diamonds after a raid on his village. His wife and daughters wind up in a refugee camp that's home to more than one million people. His son (Kagiso Kuyers) later falls into the hands of the rebels. He's trained to kill.

When he's forced to help mine diamonds, Solomon finds and hides an extraordinarily large diamond. Through a series of coincidences, Danny learns about the diamond. In return for being guided to the rare stone, Danny offers to help locate Solomon's family.

Of course, Danny's moral reclamation can't be furthered without a woman. Enter journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), a reporter trying to write an investigative piece about how the greed for diamonds relates to the slaughter in Sierra Leone, where most of the action is set.

And action it is. Zwick makes the most of the fighting. Here's another picture of Africa as a cauldron of strife and cruelty, as well as a victim of Western cupidity. Blood Diamond splashes us with images of ground-level horror that can be difficult to watch, even as the story travels a predictable path.

Some of the most brutal scenes arrive early on. When the rebels raid villages, for example, they cut the arms off women and children. Like Solomon's son, some of their young captives are turned into vicious, kiddie killers.

The diamond industry already has complained about the movie, which seems to do a good job detailing how the trade in conflict diamonds works. Audiences may complain about other things, like an extended length (two hours and 23 minutes) that sometimes causes a loss of momentum.

And Zwick (Last Samurai and Glory) burdens the proceedings with some last-minute preaching, perhaps an attempt to balance the picture's cynicism with a tonic blast of idealism - not to mention some soggy Hollywood optimism.

But the movie's atmosphere never ceases to fascinate. In some sense, Africa saves the picture. We see vast refugee camps. We feel the terror brought about by sudden bursts of violence in the middle of placid towns. The relentless hack of AK-47s proves chilling, a noisy desecration of the beautiful countryside.

At its best, Blood Diamond makes the sorrow of Sierra Leone's exploitation (by just about everyone) palpable. Had the picture been shorter, tighter and a trifle more tough-minded, we might have had to sift through less narrative dross to get to it, but at least it's there, waiting to be discovered.