“… it’s not perfect, but it has a good story, great actors, and a solid message behind it.”

Blood Diamond stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou in a story about two men, placed together by fate, who have to traverse the treacherous African landscape during a civil war to retrieve a precious diamond. Honestly, I kind of forgot how much I liked this movie. Sure, it’s not perfect, but it has a good story, great actors, and a solid message behind it.

The first thing I will talk about is the story. Now this movie is pretty long, clocking in at around two and a half hours, and honestly it could be shorter. During the beginning of the film I found myself bored a couple of times, because I was just waiting for the action to start. The movie, to its credit, does have to set up quite a few things so the audience understands the gravity of the situation, I just feel that it could have peppered it in a little better instead of just beating me over the head with what is essentially a history lesson. But the movie does eventually pick up the pace and it becomes a very good thriller/action film. I think that the action scenes in Blood Diamond were very well shot, and the effects held their own as well. Calling the movie just an action film doesn’t really do it justice though. The movie touches on a lot of topics that still affect the world today, and I think it does so without shoving it in the audiences face. There is enough substance for the movie to be enjoyable, but the underlying message is still there, and when you start to think about it you realize that shit like this is still happening now. One of the main topics this movie portrays is children being stolen from their homes, and being forced to become part of the rebel army. This is where I felt a lot of the acting really shined through. All of the child actors in this movie, especially Kagiso Kuypers (who played Dia), did a fantastic job in their roles. When they were on screen I couldn’t help but feel bad for them with all that they had been through. That being said, Djimon Hounsou and Leonardo DiCaprio also do amazing jobs in this movie. I also really like the cinematography in Blood Diamond because it captured very well the beauty of Africa, as well as the grimness of the situations in the film. The score also did a pretty good job with this as well. I say pretty good because there were a few times during the beginning of the movie where I thought the score was a little too upbeat, but other than that it was great. What I liked specifically about the score of Blood Diamond was you could tell that it was very culturally influenced, often times having tribal style drums and singing, but then that would fade seamlessly into a more intense soundtrack when it needed to.

Overall I think Blood Diamond is a movie with a great story and good acting.

I give Blood Diamond a B