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List Price: $12.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 2140
Released: March 20, 2007 |
| Our Price: $4.12 |
| Used Price: $1.70 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
An ex-mercenary turned smuggler (Leonardo DiCaprio). A Mende fisherman (Djimon Hounsou). Amid the explosive civil war overtaking 1999 Sierra Leone, these men join for two desperate missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the fisherman's son, conscripted as a child soldier into the brutal rebel forces ripping a swath of torture and bloodshed across the alternately beautiful and ravaged countryside. Directed by Edward Zwick (Glory, The Last Samurai), this urgent, intensely moving adventure shapes gripping human stories and heart-pounding action into a modern epic of profound impact.
Description of Blood Diamond (Widescreen Edition):
Leonardo DiCaprio puts a handsome face on an ugly industry: In parts of Africa, diamond mining fuels civil warfare, killing thousands of innocents and drafting preteen children as vicious soldiers. DiCaprio (The Departed) plays Danny Archer, a white African soldier-turned-diamond-smuggler who gets wind of a large raw jewel found by Solomon Vandy, a native fisherman (Djimon Hounsou, In America) recently escaped from enslavement by a brutal rebel leader. Archer offers a deal: He'll help Vandy find his war-scattered family if Vandy will share the diamond with him. Drawn into this web of exploitation is journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly, Little Children), who agrees to help if Archer will tell her the details of how conflict diamonds make their way into the hands of the corporations who sell them to the Western world. DiCaprio is compelling because he never flinches from Archer's utter ruthlessness; Archer ends up doing the morally justifiable thing, but only because his desperate greed has led him to it. Hounsou and Connelly, though saddled with all the moral and political speeches, rise above the cant and keep the movie's treacherously formulaic plot rooted in human characters. But in the end, the story won't stick with you as much as the dead stillness in the child soldiers' eyes; the horror of African civil strife refuses to be contained by Blood Diamond's uplifting message--and the movie is all the more potent as a result. --Bret Fetzer
Blood Diamond (Widescreen Edition) Reviews:
Hard-hitting film disguised as an adventure story 
2009-10-23 - Director Edward Zwick ("Glory," "Courage Under Fire," "The Siege," "The Last Samurai") has never been one to shy away from touchy subjects. Nor is he afraid to tackle morally complex material and put his actors and their characters (and for that matter, the audience right along with them) through the emotional gauntlet. He usually makes his points bearable and--against all odds--entertaining by packaging them in action-packed stories. This time around, he shows how the diamond trade affects Sierra Leone and its neighboring nations.
Playing an unscrupulous soldier of fortune who, after living his entire life in Africa, has become a world-class cynic, Leonardo DiCaprio handles a difficult accent quite well and turns in yet another great performance. With the help of a morally-upright father (Djimon Hounsou)--who has been separated from his family by ruthless rebels who kill and brutally maim entire villages at will and either subjugate or brainwash the few remaining survivors into service--and an ambitious journalist (Jennifer Connelly) who wants to expose the rampant corruption she sees in its effects on the people, he makes his way through one hostile territory after another to find a diamond valuable enough to buy his way out of what he aptly calls a God-forsaken place.
Along the way, he sometimes does the right thing because it serves his purpose, but as he goes along, his motives become less and less selfish. Zwick is one of the few directors who could make such a transformation believable. "Blood Diamond" shows off his ability to portray tragic and horrific things without being exploitative and also how hope and redemption are possible and even necessary in even the worst of situations.
Insight into high risk smuggling.
2009-09-28 - I love the video, it is packed with action. The lead actors do a very good job of portraying the high risks of smuggling in Africa's continual civil wars.
Hollywood Tarnishes What Could Have Been a Great Film 
2009-08-28 - We really enjoyed the story, learning about the violence, depravity, corruption, and cruelty that goes into the diamond trade. However, I wish that a less Hollywood-type Director had crafted this movie. The acting was very good and I don't know how authentic DiCaprio's "Rhodesian" accent is, but it's a powerful film, and I do recommend it.
What ruined it for me were the typical shoot-'em-up and chase scenes, where your star can manage to run in an open street while people are getting cut down left and right, yet manage to dodge bullets on more than one occasion.
And it starts to get ridiculous how many moving, beautifully acted scenes happen while the characters are supposed to be running for their lives. We pause for these interludes, then, when the characters have finished their emotionally charged moments, the bad guys, out of respect for these actors' close-ups, I guess, start charging after them again, and the action blasts on.
A flawed, yet captivating story, that'll make you think twice about the real price of those beautiful diamonds.
boring 
2009-08-11 - Blood Diamond is a chase chase run run film. Nothing that would keep you tuned in like another run run chase chase film The Fugitive but the basic plot while it could have been compelling is so typical of Hollywood today....Man uses diamond to reunite family. Didn't work for me. I wish I has the last two hours back. The only good thing about the movie is you get a good look at what might be a believable violent place Africa is with the warlords and gangs fighting over these diamonds. I thought the idea for the movie was interesting but the director once again failed to take an interesting subject and turn it into an interesting movie. It's a drawn out run run chase chase movie. Yawn. Jennifer Connelly is pretty good. DiCaprio and Hounsou are always good. The story line is typical annoying Hollywood middle of the street 21st century bore fest. It's so funny that you have all these creative people in Hollywood and they make the same movies over and over and over. Every Harrison Ford movie is basically the same thing (ordinary guy overcomes extraordinary odds). Blood Diamond is a run run chase chase movie only good for someone who has sleeping problems. Olympic Curling is more interesting.
Beyond the Diamond
2009-07-12 - A good story... but if you look beyond the Diamond Story... you will see a lot more about the wars going on in Africa and the exploitation and brainwashing of young African boys to fight for a cause they now nothing about
