Review of Blood Diamond (2006) by Chadshiira — 11 Dec 2006
"Blood Diamond", to the filmmaker's credit, is self-aware of its overt pop entertainment elements. The first Sierra Leonean soldier Danny(Leonardo DiCaprio) talks to goes by the name of Rambo.
And not coincidentally, the action scenes in "Blood Diamond" are indistinguishable from some innocuous violent film with a high body count. The human carnage is supposed to be sobering, but its not.
"Blood Diamond" isn't "The Killing Fields". There's no scene in which the dead Africans are truly mourned. We end up caring more about Danny's fate. His cohort Maddy(Jennifer Connelly) seems like a stand-in for the filmmaker(or screenwriter) when she says what Danny is thinking; that she's "exploiting their grief.
" Her former beau described her as an "action junkie"(a possible reference to the film's target audience, or the screenwriter's sensibility), but that "[she] give[s] a sh*t"(a possible reference to the writer's social consciousness, but concessions are necessary in order to get the film green-lighted).
"Hotel Rwanda" was a mainstream film, but the spectacle never got in the way of its message.
This review of Blood Diamond (2006) was written by Chadshiira on 11 Dec 2006.
Blood Diamond has generally received very positive reviews.
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