On Blood and Diamonds

I wrote about the movie Blood Diamond several months ago and was fairly critical of the concept behind the movie. Well I finally got around to seeing the movie today.

What I said before holds true. The buzz surrounding the movie, the lessons drawn from it, and the underlying intended purpose of it are misleading. The idea that war in Africa is a result of our indulgence is ridiculous. And the idea that if we didn't buy diamonds...or gold or oil for that matter...from Africa, the wars would go away is even more so.

That said, I enjoyed the movie. Suprisingly the blood diamond theme was relatively subdued save for a few highly charged dialogue scenes. It is a story of evil and redemption. It does portray war in Africa in a manner which, to my understanding, is accurate. War in much of Africa is a horrible, horrible thing (though I suppose the modifier "in Africa" isn't neccessary) that tears the social fabric apart and is tremendously destructive. Massacres of entire villages are not uncommon, children are abducted and transformed into monsters, taught to destroy and kill and even deny their own parents. Refugee camps overflow. Government forces are often no better than rebel forces.

And the fire of war is fed, not by ideas...freedom, nation, oppression, exploitation...but by the personal gain acheived by the leaders of the war. When war is conducted in this way there is no incentive for peace. The oppressed, the poor, the good, are displaced or killed, and the rich, powerful, and evil are left to suck the life out of society for their own personal gain.

The plot of the movie is also engrossing. It is led by Leonardo Dicaprio who, in my opinion, does an excellent job. The transformation and redemption of his character is painfully slow, and advances two steps forward, one back. But it is completed and in the end, as in any good story there is a degree of justice served.

All in all it was an enjoyable movie. A warning though...it is a tremendously violent movie with some incredibly disturbing scenes including but not limited to impromtu amputation, village massacres, the indoctrination of children and their subsequent vicious behavior, lots of death, the sack of a city, and several firefights.