Sir Evan's Weekly Movie Recommendation

Blood Diamond (***) 2006

Rated R (intense war violence)

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio & Djimon Hounsou
Written by Charles Leavitt
Directed by Edward Zwick

Nominated for five Academy Awards, Blood Diamond, showcases outstanding performances from DiCaprio, as a diamond smuggler in war-torn Sierra Leone, and Hounsou, as an African fisherman and dedicated father. In the film, Solomon Vandy (Hounsou) is ripped from his family and put to work in the RUF diamond fields while his son is taken by the fiendish rebels for indoctrination into their ranks. There seems little hope for Solomon and his family until he discovers a rare, pink diamond, which captures the attention of Danny Archer (DiCaprio), a self-seeking diamond trader and disillusioned soul. The diamond represents freedom to both men - to Solomon in the form of his family's freedom... to Archer, freedom in the form of a plane ticket... out of Africa.

In this whirlwind of a film, helmed by veteran director, Edward Zwick (Glory, The Last Samurai, Defiance), viewers witness the chaos and destruction of the civil war that overcame Sierra Leone in the late 90's. Amidst the struggle, Archer and Solomon, joined by American journalist, Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), must band together to rescue Solomon's son and keep the valuable "blood diamond" out of the wrong hands. But with Archer's motives unclear, the "wrong hands" may be relative...

Blood Diamond is a riveting film about two unlikely allies thrust together against the backdrop of a national conflict. Powerful and moving, it is a motion picture of epic proportions, if not from its massive scale, then from its characters' personal struggles.