Review of Blood Diamond (2006) by Markb. — 19 Jan 2007

Back in 1997, when Titanic was breaking all kinds of box office records and creating a few of its own, Leonardo DiCaprio suddenly started being touted in some circles as "the new Gable". That's not precisely accurate--even though Titanic was in many ways this generation's Gone With The Wind, Clark Gable's best characterizations (GWTW, San Fransisco, The Misfits) were mixtures of darkness and light while DiCaprio's Jack Dawson was nothing BUT light.

Fast forward to nearly a decade later and who'd have anticipated DiCaprio as the new Bogart? Forget his British accent: Blood Diamond in some ways is Casablanca all over again, with the big honkin' precious stone that he and Djimon Hounsou form an uneasy partnership over filling in for the letters of transit.

DiCaprio has grown and toughened more in a shorter period of time than any other contemporary actor that comes to mind: as recently as 2002's Gangs of New York he wore the cynicism and amorality demanded of him like an ill-fitting mask; now, with this and The Departed, it's come to fit him like a glove.

Leading lady Jennifer Connelly does extremely well here too: after what seems like years of playing glum women carrying the world on their shoulders (which she excels at, as A Beautiful Mind and House of Sand and Fog clearly prove) it's a joy to see her smile, laugh and do repartee with equal skill! The movie itself is a smooth, handsomely made and entertaining action film with an ambitious social agenda: it not only wants to, like Hotel Rwanda, open Western eyes and hearts to the bloody atrocities Africans commit upon one another in Hatfield/ McCoy-like tribal skirmishes, but influence our pocketbooks by getting us NOT to buy jewelry sold by those who profit from and promulgate said conflicts.

(The central--and perhaps unintended--question brought up in movies like this, which has reemerged anew with Saddam's execution, is so unanswerable it almost qualifies as a Buddhist koan; namely, if colonialist or dictatorial rule keeps the lid on decades and centuries of tribal resentments which would explode in endless bloodbaths if removed, is it possible that maybe iron-fist rule isn't ENTIRELY a bad thing?) Director Ed Zwick, who specializes in thoughtful historical epics and contemporary thrillers wrapped around such thinking-person's heartthrobs as Dicaprio, Denzel Washington, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, works slickly and seamlessly but intelligently, avoiding many of the standard mistakes (such as having DiCaprio and Hjonsou be buddies); his directorial trademark seems to be the use of one piece of explicit gore to represent an entire canvas of violence--remember the soldier's head being blown off in Glory or the theatergoer's arm doing the same in The Siege? My central difficulty with Blood Diamond lies in Hjonsou's characterization (NOT his performance, which is typically powerful).

He seems to have two and only two dramatic functions: to reclaim his son from the rebel army that has kidnapped, enslaved and brainwashed the youth, turning him and other children into something not far removed from George A.

Romero's zombies, and to turn DiCaprio's cynical opportunist into a better person. This is the Noble Negro syndrome, most famously exhibited by runaway slave Jim in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and cafe piano player Sam in Casablanca; both are honorable creations, but have been duplicated too many times to serve as much more than an all-too convenient and arbitrary literary device, no matter how well played.

..and anyway, Hjonsou is certainly a nuanced enough actor (as In America demonstrates) to warrant and deserve characters with a few more layers and complexities. This does a lot to explain why Zwick's strengths and limitations as a filmmaker parallel those of his more famously socially conscious predecessor Stanley Kramer, and why Blood Diamond, as watchable as it is, is ultimately too schematic to be anything more than a good night of movie escapism, which is precisely what I'm sure Zwick DOESN'T want it to be.

..and why it's not causing QVC jewelry hostesses Jane Treacy and Lisa Robertson to lose any sleep over inability to meet their sales quotas.