Friday, January 25, 2008

Blood Diamond....TIA - This is Africa !!!


The movie is an absolute masterpiece with some excellent direction, great performances and larger than life feel. The director, Edward Zwick, has done an excellent job of presenting the viewer with the truth of civil war in Africa (at least some aspects of it) in just above 2 hrs. With a tight script, the movie keeps its pace throughout and never digresses from its focus point.





It is based on the industry of illegal diamond export (conflict diamonds) prevalent in many countries of Africa, and the plot of the movie is in Sierra Leone. Archer (Leonardo) is a middleman responsible for delivery of conflict diamonds to the companies in England. Solomon (Djimon) is a fisherman who dreams of his young son becoming a doctor. Maddy (Jennifer) is an idealistic reporter who believes in her work and humanity.

Solomon is forced to work in the diamond mines. His son is kidnapped by the local mafia and made a part of the their gang. While working in the mines Solomon finds a very big diamond and conceals it underground in the jungle. In a police raid on mines, Solomon is sent to jail. Archer comes to know about the concealed diamond and offers Solomon help in getting his family back in return of the diamond. Rest of the movie connects Archer's search for that diamond by using Solomon and Maddy, Solomon's search for his son and family and Maddy's search for the truth of conflict diamonds in Africa. Movie uses a phrase TIA (meaning This is Africa) to basically show that 2 + 2 may not be 4 in Africa !! It's not the cosy cosy fairytale world of west.

I was surprised to see that Blood Diamond is not in IMDB Top 250. I mean WTF, we have Kill Bill up there and that too Vol 1 and Vol 2 both.................if that's the standard we are looking for, Gunda and Loha (apne mithun da ki cult movies) shall be right on top :)

Anyways, watch Blood Diamond to see that Movies too can have heart and soul.

2 comments:

Sunny said...

I have seen the movie dost...a real treat for movie lovers.... :)

Hari said...

Good post! a gr8 movie indeed..but sadly.. a boxoffice disaster..:(