This movie is not pretty, and deals with downright ugly subject matter. Yet, it is a beautiful movie. It is also a movie that has a wide appeal, because it has many things to offer. It is an intelligent movie that makes a statement on mindless consumerism at all costs, even hidden exploitation and corruption on a massive scale, and it virtually documents the specifics on the diamond smuggling trade. But it is also an action movie on many levels, leaving you on the edge of your seat with suspense. Still more, it tells the story of the imbalance between the third world and the first world, specifically Africa in this case, and shows how the violence that far too much of Africa cannot seem to escape seems to be recycled, year after year, decade after decade, expertly hinting at the history of the birth of this kind of exploitation and violence colonial rule.
This movie, if it were a Shakespeare play, would be a tragedy, both because of the human conditions that it illustrates, as well as for the incomplete romance that never quite seems to get off the ground, between the drug smuggler Danny Archer, a Rhodesian born virtual mercenary, and Maddy Bowen, an American journalist covering Sierra Leone, where this movie is supposed to take place. Danny is played by Leonardo DiCaprio, while Maddy is played by Jennifer Connelly. They both do an unbelievable job in their roles.
It focuses on the illegal diamond smuggling business, which rakes in huge profits year in and year out, and the violence which this trade tends to precipitate all over Africa.
****Spoiler Alert****
A local fisherman, Solomon Vandy (played very capably by Djimon Hounsou), is doing his best to survive, and hopes especially to provide a better future for his son. It is a modest living, and by western standards, the Vandy family is poor, living in huts, and without means of transportation, or electricity. Yet, they seem to be happy enough.
But all of that changes when their village is raided by a local warlord with his army of captured children, who terrorize without reservation or apparent humanity. They rape and murder, and capture those who may be deemed useful, such as Solomon Vandy, who is obviously a physical specimen who can work hard for them as a virtual slave, as well as his son, Dia Vandy (played very well by Kagiso Kuypers) ultimately, who will later on be captured, and turned into a child soldier himself, and begins to lose his humanity with the terrible things that he is made to do.
Solomon finds out about the fate of his boy later on, and he never loses faith in his boy. He goes to all lengths to save him, his belief never wavering. But before all of this, he has his own adventure, when he finds a very valuable diamond, a pink piece that is truly one of a kind, and worth millions. Rather than simply turning it in, he tries to hide it, but is discovered by Captain Poison (played by David Harewood, who does a convincing job). Yet, it is precisely when Solomon is about to pay the price, when the diamond camp is invaded, and Captain Poison is injured, losing an eye, although he sees Solomon escaping with the diamond, and suspects that he has buried it nearby.
In the meantime, Danny Archer, a diamond smuggler, has gotten into trouble, arrested and brought to prison - the same prison, as it turns out, that Vandy and Captain Poison have been taken to. When the two have a confrontation, Archer witnesses the two men arguing over the pink diamond. Archer is obviously intrigued, and once he is out of jail, he pays Vandy's bail, then tries to get him to reveal the location of the diamond. All this while, a civil war is beginning to erupt in the country, and travel becomes not just difficult, but almost impossible.
Earlier, Danny Archer had approached a very attractive woman, Maddy Bowen, that he saw at a bar (the only white woman there). Archer talks to her a bit, but the smooth talk does not last long. He learns that she is a reporter, trying to get a revealing story, and takes an interest when he has revealed that he is a diamond smuggler. Later on, he uses her name opportunistically, when he needs a vehicle, knowing the press will always have one. He promises her the story that she has been looking for, and tries to convince her to let him use the vehicle in exchange for the story that will break the corrupt illegal diamond trade, and how it works, precisely. She eventually goes along with it.
There is considerable underlying tension between the two, yet there is an undeniable attraction, as well. They both approach one another with caution and suspicion. She accuses him of being guilty, of having blood on his hands, essentially, while he, in turn, accuses her of doing the same thing, profiting off the pain of others, only using words, rather than smuggling diamonds. He forces her to confront the questions surrounding her own presence in the war torn country, and that despite her seemingly noble intentions, what comes out is a form of manipulating a tragedy for her own ends, as well. Secretly, she seems impressed at his ability to turn the tables on her, and confront her with her own self-righteousness. So, there seems this weird, kind of love-hate thing going on between them.
She falls for him, but he is too wrapped up in the blind lust of diamonds to change his ways, although he seems, at points, to seriously consider it, and to truly turn a corner and live an honest life by her side. Ultimately, however, pursuing diamonds and such is too ingrained, and he puts himself in danger in the attempt to find this ultimate of diamonds, which he claims he hopes to finally get him out of Africa for good.
So, he pursues the pink diamond, taking Vandy along with him. They are forced to overcome a lot of dangers and treacherous terrain, and at one point, are actively pursued by some rebel troops. However, they survive, and make it to the village where the diamond camp is located. The only thing is that it is now occupied by the rebels, and Vandy, who has been searching for his son all of this time, sneaks off to the village, against the orders of Archer to stay away. Vandy finds his son, but he is unrecognizable, having been dehumanized and brainwashed to the point that he hardly seems to understand the meaning behind this sudden and surprising reunion with his father. This almost costs Solomon Vandy his life, but it is precisely then that the helicopter attack that Archer has ordered comes in, and this ultimately saves Vandy.
Yet, the danger is not over yet. Having sent in the coordinates to his former fighting unit (which is also a big part of the diamond smuggling business), the group decides to attack, regardless of who might be down there, including Archer and Vandy. They want the diamond, and Archer understands this. They force Solomon to take them to location of the diamond, and dig for it. But Archer, sensing that this unit intends to kill both Vandy and himself, launches a surprise attack on his own, and it succeeds. He and Vandy, and his son, make their escape, although they are being pursued.
But in the process, Archer discovers that he has been shot, and apparently, it is a serious wound. It does not take him long to understand that it amounts to a fatal wound, at least out here in the bush. So, he does something entirely out of character by giving the diamond back to Solomon Tandy, and making him promise to use the riches he will get from it on his son, on giving his son the chance at improving himself. Tandy agrees, and this seems to suggest that Archer has, indeed, become a new person - although it comes right at the very end, in the last few minutes of his life.
Archer's last acts are to take the biggest gun that he still has, and to hold off those armed smugglers who are after the diamond, and then, once he has been given a few minutes of relative peace, to call Maddy. The call takes her by surprise, as she is dining with friends by the waterfront in Cape Town. It is quickly revealed to her that he is seriously injured, and before too long, she understands that this is his last conversation, that he is sharing his last words with her. He has given her all of the information that she needs for a huge story that will have enormous implications, perhaps even endangering a specific firm's previously secretive involvement in the diamond smuggling business by blowing it wide open. The shady corporation ends up doing exactly as Archer has predicted, by purchasing the diamond, and then keeping it locked in a subterranean vault, just one of many diamonds being held from the public, in order to artificially keep the prices of diamonds very high. Maddy helps Vandy make the deal and get his family back, and then Vandy, in turn, uses his voice, which has up to this point been silent, in order to expose the realities of life in Sierra Leone, and the tragedy behind the illegal diamond smuggling trade that has, in effect, taken his nation hostage.
The movie is thought-provoking, to say the least. It really makes you wonder just what is behind our purchases, and not just diamonds. In this world of not only abusive diamond mining and hunting, but exploitation on mass scales and sweatshops and child labor and such, where well over one billion people live in dire poverty, how many of our everyday products that we consume are actually the product of immense suffering? Those awesome sneakers that you just got, perhaps, or the shirt that you just bought at Walmart. Or, of course, that expensive diamond ring that you just took out a line of credit to get, and which you cannot really afford, in order to ask your girlfriend for her hand in marriage - most likely with a very expensive and elaborate wedding which neither of you can really afford, for that matter.
How much of the world suffers, so that we can live our lives of comfort, even luxury?
Some people will dismiss such questions by arguing that this is how things have always worked. But the world has changed rapidly, and continues to change at an unbelievable pace. True, the quickest changes with the most impact these days seem to be on the technological end, but there have been political changes, as well. I mean, I'm not that old, yet there have been some unbelievable political changes in my own lifetime, when you sit and think about it. Look at how many dictatorships there were three decades ago in Latin America, compared with now. Look at how Pinochet was so relentlessly pursued by those looking for justice. Look at how relentlessly some pursue major war criminals in the present day, from aging Nazis (there seem to only be a handful of these cases remaining, since these events were long ago now, these days), or suspected war criminals in the former Yugoslavia, of in some African nations, such as in Liberia, where former President Charles Taylor became the first head of state convicted of war crimes. We can remember the sweeping changes that overtook whole regions and gave the possibility of new freedom where, before, there had been none. Look at the exciting winds of change in eastern Europe in 1989, or the Arab Spring in 2011.
Or, even here, in the United States specifically, or in the West more generally, where some surely still fear the embers from the seemingly extinguished "Occupy" movements that swept through the nation (and indeed, the world - check it out for yourselves if you need proof) threaten to reignite at any given moment, with revelations of yet one more outrageous abuse of "the system" that, until recently, most people either accepted without question, or sighed and looked the other way, whenever it was revealed that it perhaps actually did not work to their advantage.
So, despite the reputation that some have given me for being a cynic, I want to remain an optimist on this front, because change is possible. Moreover, it is necessary. The way things are going, we simply cannot survive the world going on as it has for so long now, with business as usual. We cannot allow it, because with a growing population competing for reduced resources in a shrinking world, such a system that "has always been like that" simply is no longer possible. The stakes are just too high now. How much longer will we allow such exploitation to literally define us, our maps, and our lifestyles?
The answers surely are not in a movie like this, of course. Yet, this movie helps to raise awareness, and perhaps will get people to think about these issues, and begin to ask questions. That is what the fictional Maddy, the reporter, was trying to do. The best way for changes, positive changes, to be ushered in, is for people to no longer accept the present reality unquestioningly, but to begin to ask questions, and to examine for themselves if a better way, and a better world, is possible.
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