Blood Diamond

Last week I went to see the movie Blood Diamond. I wasn’t expecting much except for an action thriller. Actually I had not even heard of the movie until the day before when my brother-in-law and his son suggested that we go out to see the film.
The film did not lack for action. Several street battle scenes vividly captured the confusion and violence of a rebel attack, but I was pleasantly surprised to see this movie was more. Some movies entertain. Some challenge the way you think, encouraging you to see the world in a different way. And some try to change the way you live. Blood Diamond to my surprise accomplished all three.
The underlying theme is the selling of diamonds to support rebel armies and governments in Africa. Set against the backdrop of the chaos and civil war that enveloped 1990s Sierra Leone, "Blood Diamond" is the story of Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), a South African mercenary, and Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a Mende fisherman. Both men are African, but their histories and their circumstances are as different as any can be—until their fates become joined in a common quest to recover a rare pink diamond that can transform their lives.
The story is of Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a fisherman in 1990s Sierra Leone whose village is attacked by the Revolution United Front—the rebel army in an ongoing civil war. The RUF capture him, separating him from his wife and children, and put him to work in a diamond mine. There he finds a diamond—a rare and extremely large pink diamond. He knows it’s worth a huge sum, enough to rescue him and help him find his family.

Solomon’s relentless pursuit of his family and specifically his son was the most impacting sub-theme for me. Even after his son has been turned into a child-soldier by the rebel army and rejects his father, Solomon did not give up the pursuit. (Spoiler ahead) Solomon whit a gun pointed at him from his child’s hand calls to him and tells him his name and who he really is, accepting him even though his son has ventured into the life of a child soldier and committed atrocities. The same is true of our Father God who sees not the rebel but the son who he loves and is pursuing at all cost to rescue. This one scene made the movie for me.

However there is a larger message being portrayed. There are still an estimated $23 million of conflict diamonds being smuggled into the international market each year. Nevertheless, diamonds are one of the biggest sources of legitimate income for many African countries, and they have been the foundation of wealth for many rising nations. Here lies the dilemma.
Blood Diamond has been criticized for being too heavy-handed in message—an unfair accusation, considering the ambiguous nature of the diamond in the movie--and interweaving too many characters, issues, and plotlines. But Blood Diamond is a perfect example of the political and moral power that a movie can potentially exert. The issue of conflict diamonds is not a new one; activists have fought for years to bring this issue to the consciousness of consumers. The U.N.-sanctioned Kimberly Process for the certification of conflict-free diamonds has been in place since 2003, but today, blood diamonds are still an ongoing issue and a significant source of funds for terrorists and illegal armed operations. It remains to be seen whether Blood Diamond will succeed in making this problem one in which consumers, not just activists, insist on change. But if anything could achieve that, this movie could.