Review of Blood Diamond (2006) by Joe H — 24 Jul 2012

Like "Rambo" (the fourth film in the Rambo series), "Blood Diamond" excels at raising awareness of some of the more terrible things that go on overseas. In this case, not only the truth of "blood diamonds", but especiallyâ"to meâ"raising the awareness of the hundreds of thousands of children that are taken from their families and beaten into heartless soldiers, at first forced to kill but eventually becoming callous to their fears and killing without a second thought. We just really tend not to have any idea of what is going on in some of the darker corners of the earth. Now some would argue that that's because we have our own problems, but I don't believe that's reason for ignorance.

As for the film itself (SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT), it was very engaging. Unfortunately, again like "Rambo", while it succeeds in driving home the reality of situations overseas, it is very difficult to watch without, at the end, kinda wanting to commit suicide. But, anyhow... a good movie nevertheless. Really the only thing that I was not happy with was the ending. The writers gave into that old cliche that the only way the Mercenary can find redemption is by being mortally wounded and then becoming a "good man" in his last moments. I really don't believe it was necessary at all for Archer to die. The redemption process was starting enough by the end of the movie that it really would have been believable for him to, without dying, finally turn around completely, and then live on.

But what's done is done. Good acting, good music (for the most part) by James Newton Howard, and good storyline. I give it only 4 stars because it gets minused 1 star for Archer dying :).