Blood Diamond

Dir: Edward Zwick (The Last Samurai, Legends of the Fall)
Cast: Djimon Hounsou, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly
USA, 2006

Seen: February 14, 2007 at the Carlton

Reason to see: Numerous Oscar nominations, recommended by a few people as a good film and part of third attempt of #7 on my 101 list: See 1 film a week in the theatre for a year.

First off, I'd have to say I did almost leave the theatre. Not for the reasons listed in the warnings but the fact I went to see it on Valentine's Day and when I walked in there was only 1 couple there. I thought to myself "If no one else comes in, I'll leave and let them have their night". But, there ended up being quite a good crowd so I stayed and watched it.

I found myself really conflicted while watching this film. All the trailers really made if feel like an action adventure flick but on the recommendation of a few different people that insisted it actually had a message I decided to give it a go. I found it very hard to watch. The situations and the violence was very disturbing, but it wasn't really just that. What I wasn't expecting was to see child soldiers - and I found that truly horrific and those scenes still disturb me.

I would have to say that it was well done though, the story is compelling and the acting is good. I thought Leonardo DiCaprio's accent was a little hit and miss but was better than I expected. Am I happy I saw it? Not really, it's not a film for me. The awareness of issues are always good but for me this format made it too hard to take in.

Warnings: Extremely violent, maiming, torture, drug use, child soldiers, brainwashing

Shannon's Overall View:
It was better than I expected, however....
I watch not watch it again
I recommend it to people interested in films about moral issues and the world at large

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Less than 5 min of preshow with 1 commercial and 2 previews (The Kingdom, Breach)

© Shannon Ridler, 2007