Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly. Perhaps this is Leonardo's first 'grown up' film. I did see him in The Beach, but refused to watch Titanic - either at the cinema or on one of its' regular outings on TV.
In many ways this is an old fashioned war movie. Leonardo is Archer a Rhodesian (not Zimbabwean as he insists)born ex-mercenary who is making a living working wherever he can. He ends up in war torn Sierra Leone, where he meets journalist Connelly - a war correspondent in search of a story about diamonds as a currency for financing the crop of civil wars that break out in Africa. Sierra Leone is awash with diamonds but exports none (officially), Liberia has no home grown diamonds but has an export trade worth billions.
Hounsou is a fisherman dragged into the conflict, taken into slavery in the diamond mines, his son stolen as a child soldier for the rebels, his wife and daughter become refugees in Guinea (interestingly currently another likely candidate for civil war).
We see the horrors of war as a backdrop to Archer's search for the enormous diamond secreted away by Solomon (Hounsou), and Solomon's desperate attempts to re-unite his family.
There is plenty of action - car chases, explosions, gunfire, mayhem and murder.
However, I don't really think this film truly knows what its about - is it action movie, war film, romance, or poltical diatribe?
And yet again I have this problem about yet another film taking a white view of Africa. Hounsou's role (which should really be the heroic one) is reduced to a highly sentimental (dare I say it American?) perspective of life. So when Solomon is re-united with his son (the boy slodier) and he turns his gun on his father as 'the enemy' Solomon 'converts' him to his loving son in a couple of minutes, with tears and hugs. For a more realistic account of being a child soldier I suggest you read Heart of Fire by Senait Mehari.
My rating? 7/10 (mainly for the action!)
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