Blood Diamond
Just watched Blood Diamond.
Wow.
Wow.
WOW.
Yeah.
That's all I got.
I might meta later, but for now, wow.
Nothing will make me as shaken about the policies in Africa as Hotel Rwanda (in my Top 10 movies) did, but this came close.
It gave me shakes, especially when Solomon is in London and sees the pretty little baubles in jeweler's setting that his whole country is being destroyed for. I also loved that Danny (DiCaprio is amazing, isn't he?) is not a nice guy. He is a mercenary and a bastard, in every sense of the word and his world made him this way, the neverending cycle of violence (loved the scene with his mentioning without any self-pity to Jennifer Connoly's character about his mother being raped and shot and his father hung when he was 9), and there is yet another point about victims becoming perpetrators and making new victims and the cycle continuing (the cycle Solomon's son escapes because of Solomon's devotion and love). He makes the right choice in the end but just barely and only because it's the end of the road for him. You see glimmers of humanity and humaneness but he is probably too far gone to save, just like so many others.
P.S. I really like this director. He did this, he did Glory and he did Last Samurai, and I love all of them, however unfashionable making the last one makes me (but then I like Tom Cruise movies, however nutty he is: TLS, Minority Report, Collateral & TWotW are all very good)
ETA2: (I typed this in response to koalathebear below, but I think it belongs up here). I was incredibly impressed that it wasn't yet another 'epic' about white people discovering themselves in exotic locations. So many of these characters (from child soldiers to the mercenaries) are both perpetrators and victims and just trapped.
Mr. Mousie had a really good point. It's not really about the diamonds. It's about the political situation which creates the rebels (in this case, the then dictator of Liberia tried to destabilize surrounding countries so new regimes will be friendlier to him. He is facing a trial for human rights violations now, about time). The rebels will exploit anything there is. If there is no diamonds or oil, they will turn to other means. In some African country (whose name escapes me) rebels made people die digging for some obscure mineral which is used in cellphones. In Ivory Coast, rebels got into making and selling cocoa (in conditions no better than the ones in this movie).
The region needs political stability and IMO for the world to take responsibility, and I love that the movie makes this point. Of course, that eventually happened somewhat in Sierra Leone, with Tony Blair sending peacekeeping forces (apparently he is very liked there because of it).
But watching this makes me feel ashamed of complaining about things. Compared to that, I am incredibly lucky.
Wow.
Wow.
WOW.
Yeah.
That's all I got.
I might meta later, but for now, wow.
Nothing will make me as shaken about the policies in Africa as Hotel Rwanda (in my Top 10 movies) did, but this came close.
It gave me shakes, especially when Solomon is in London and sees the pretty little baubles in jeweler's setting that his whole country is being destroyed for. I also loved that Danny (DiCaprio is amazing, isn't he?) is not a nice guy. He is a mercenary and a bastard, in every sense of the word and his world made him this way, the neverending cycle of violence (loved the scene with his mentioning without any self-pity to Jennifer Connoly's character about his mother being raped and shot and his father hung when he was 9), and there is yet another point about victims becoming perpetrators and making new victims and the cycle continuing (the cycle Solomon's son escapes because of Solomon's devotion and love). He makes the right choice in the end but just barely and only because it's the end of the road for him. You see glimmers of humanity and humaneness but he is probably too far gone to save, just like so many others.
P.S. I really like this director. He did this, he did Glory and he did Last Samurai, and I love all of them, however unfashionable making the last one makes me (but then I like Tom Cruise movies, however nutty he is: TLS, Minority Report, Collateral & TWotW are all very good)
ETA2: (I typed this in response to koalathebear below, but I think it belongs up here). I was incredibly impressed that it wasn't yet another 'epic' about white people discovering themselves in exotic locations. So many of these characters (from child soldiers to the mercenaries) are both perpetrators and victims and just trapped.
Mr. Mousie had a really good point. It's not really about the diamonds. It's about the political situation which creates the rebels (in this case, the then dictator of Liberia tried to destabilize surrounding countries so new regimes will be friendlier to him. He is facing a trial for human rights violations now, about time). The rebels will exploit anything there is. If there is no diamonds or oil, they will turn to other means. In some African country (whose name escapes me) rebels made people die digging for some obscure mineral which is used in cellphones. In Ivory Coast, rebels got into making and selling cocoa (in conditions no better than the ones in this movie).
The region needs political stability and IMO for the world to take responsibility, and I love that the movie makes this point. Of course, that eventually happened somewhat in Sierra Leone, with Tony Blair sending peacekeeping forces (apparently he is very liked there because of it).
But watching this makes me feel ashamed of complaining about things. Compared to that, I am incredibly lucky.