I went to an early show today and while I enjoyed many things about it, it left me a little unsatisfied. It seemed like the director couldn’t decide whether to make a striaight-ahead action movie or a socially conscious drama.
The Good:
Leonardo DiCaprio is excellent, as usual. I can’t really judge how authentic his accent was, but it sounded like he did OK to me. He definitely leaves behind his more ‘boyish’ roles here and shows that he can be a forceful, manly presence on screen. His character is suitably cynical and harsh throughout, but we see him subtley changing as the story progresses and fate approaches.
Djimon Hounsou is very good as well, and Jennifer Connelly is good although her character is two-dimensional.
The Bad:
First, there are too many scenes of the lead characters magically dodging hails of bullets from both the military and the rebel factions while everyone around them is dropping like flies. Then there is the villain with a horribly scarred eye. And, of course, don’t forget the plucky, gorgeous, female reporter who will run straight into the most dangerous situations just to get her story.
Kinda like a Van Damme movie.
The Ugly:
While this isn’t quite Hotel Rwanda, damn if there aren’t some scenes that are shocking for their violence and cruelty and it makes you want to just weep. There are many scenes that focus in on the brutality of the treatment of the civilian people. The senseless massacring and mutilating of innocents is shown, and a central plot point involves the destruction of a young boy’s innocence by forcing him into the rebel militia. Indeed, the movie makes a point of showing us that a great many of the rebel ‘soldiers’ who mow down villages with machine guns are very young boys (twelve ~ fourteen years old).
All in all, I liked it. It had a clear message, but it didn’t feel preachy. The story could have been tighter, but I would rather watch this movie ten times than to have to sit through most of the dreck that hits the theaters. It just wasn’t as great as I was expecting based on the few reviews I saw. I am a fan of DiCaprio, though, so it was worth it just to see his performance.
I thought it was one of the best movies of the year (top 10 or 15), and in my opinion it’s Dicaprio’s best performance and most interesting character.
The only problem I had was that I didn’t think the script gave Hounsou a fair shake. We should have gotten to know his character better and he should have been given more to do than act either pained or stupid (standing up when the rebel truck passes, walking right up to his son when he finds him while rebels with guns were standing right there). It undercut the sympathy I was supposed to feel for him, but the script required that the character be a dumbass so the next plot point could work. I notice they didn’t have Dicaprio or Connelly’s characters be dumbasses. It was if they were aware of the dangers around them and Hounsou’s character had no idea he was always inches away from death. Why does the main black character in movies about Africa so often get the shaft??
That’s the one thing that keeps it from being in my top 5 of the year.
Why does it have to be one or the other? And wouldn’t it being one or the other have made it a much more shallow movie? I thought it being both gave it more depth.
Agreed. He’s fantastic
Agreed, it was all very very sad, but it should have been shown and I’m glad it was.
Well, there are a LOT of very good-to-great movies in the theaters right now, but I understand your gist. I’m looking forward to seeing it again.
I agree about Hounsou’s character–that moment where he stood up and shouted while the rebel truck drove by was just incredibly stupid, although it did set up the scene where we see just how cold-blooded DiCaprio’s character could be.
Oh, it can be both. It’s just that some of the shooting scenes were almost cartoonish in their unbelievability. I guess that’s just one of my pet peeves–when you see a huge gunfight and virtually everybody in the open is being mowed down by bullets except for our heroes who waltz through unscathed. It stands out in contrast to the harsh realism of the dramatic aspects of the movie.
You’re right, there do appear to be some good ones out now–the late Oscar season releases. I’m hoping to catch a few of them next week while I’m off work.
Late to this party, but just saw the film last night - and I think it is one of the very best films this year!
I agree with a lot of what has been written in this thread so far, but the main reason I liked this film so much was that you actually felt like you were there. Yes, the violence is horrific, but according to news reports, that is what is happening in Africa in many countries today. If it takes a “Hollywood” film to get people to see what is going on, so be it. Plus, the story was interesting, the pace was fast, the characters were worth caring about and the cinematography was excellent throughout the film.
Also, I have never been a big fan of Leo, but his performance in this film, and in The Departed, have made me change my mind. Two powerful films and he did a great job in both.
Blood Diamond is one of those films I will certainly watch again when it comes out on HBO or Showtime or wherever.
I loved the scenery, cinematography and Leo but I thought it was waffled between being a preachy social conscience movie and an action flick. I’m not a fan of movies that try to lecture me (even when I agree with the politics), but I’d still say I liked it.
I didn’t realise it was based off a book-I saw it when I was in the bookstore the other day.