Blood Diamond (Blu-ray)
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 2.40:1, English, French, Spanish, Subtitled
An ex-mercenary turned smuggler (Leonard DiCaprio). A Mende fisherman (Djimon Hounsou). Amid the explosive civil war overtaking 1999 Sierra Leone, these men join for two desperate missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the fisherman's son, conscripted as a child soldier into the brutal rebel forces ripping a swath of torture and bloodshed across the alternately beautiful and ravaged countryside. Directed by Edward Zwick (Glory, The Last Samurai), this urgent, intensely moving adventure shapes gripping human stories and heart-pounding action into a modern epic of profound impact.
"Spectacular, exciting, and stunningly well made." David Denby, The New Yorker
"Sensational performances!" Jeffrey Lyons, NBC's Reel Talk
"...Zwick's epic story has numerous virtues apart from suspense and spectacle." Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
"A visually sumptuous, bullet-train-paced thriller with a really provocative theme." Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
"DiCaprio is remarkable..." Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor
Editor's Note
Set in Sierra Leone, BLOOD DIAMOND explores the role of diamond trading in the African civil war of the late 1990s. Narrowly escaping death when his village is invaded by R.U.F. militia, farmer Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) is enslaved at a diamond mine and has his family taken from him. When he discovers an unusually large stone he buries it, knowing it may be his only tool for retrieving his family. While Vandy is imprisoned, white African diamond smuggler Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) overhears an angry R.U.F. leader shouting at the farmer about the missing diamond, and he gets Vandy out of jail, then bribes him with the promise that he will help find Vandy's family in return for half the diamond's worth. Bonded by a common goal, the two men clash over drastically different values, but manage to stick together in pursuit of the prize. Also playing a part is fearless American journalist Maddie Bowen (Jennifer Connolly), whose flirtations with Archer and obsession with the truth land her in the middle of the bloody action. As the three embark on a dangerous journey filled with close calls, unlikely bonds form that threaten to change Archer's unfeeling ways. Meanwhile, a plotline following Vandy's beloved son shows us the horror being done to and by child soldiers at the hands of the so-called freedom-fighting rebel forces.
Addressing his serious subject with passion and skill, director Edward Zwick (THE LAST SAMURAI) delivers impressive action sequences that feel horrifically real without seeming excessive. While some critics have taken stabs at the film for its Hollywood elements, no one can argue against BLOOD DIAMOND's noble intentions or its stellar performances. To most viewers, the film is likely to provide a disturbing and educational look at a world many know little about.
Features Audio Commentary By Director Edward Zwick
Audio: English PCM 5.1 Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Audio: French, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Dubbed: French, Spanish
Featurettes: Focus Points - Featurettes & Production Diaries, Blood On The Stone - Follow A Diamond's Path From The Ground To The Stone, Becoming Archer - Profiling Leonardo DiCaprio, Journalism On The Front Line - Jennifer Connelly On Women Journalists At War, & Inside The Siege Of Freetown - Edward Zwick On One Of The Movie's Pivotal Sequences
Interactive Menus
Music Video: Shine On 'Em By Nas
Original Theatrical Trailer
Scene Selection
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
This Is A Blu-Ray DVD Made For Blue-Laser Format Players Which Produce Higher Quality Picture & Sound
An ex-mercenary turned smuggler (Leonard DiCaprio). A Mende fisherman (Djimon Hounsou). Amid the explosive civil war overtaking 1999 Sierra Leone, these men join for two desperate missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the fisherman's son, conscripted as a child soldier into the brutal rebel forces ripping a swath of torture and bloodshed across the alternately beautiful and ravaged countryside. Directed by Edward Zwick (Glory, The Last Samurai), this urgent, intensely moving adventure shapes gripping human stories and heart-pounding action into a modern epic of profound impact.
"Spectacular, exciting, and stunningly well made." David Denby, The New Yorker
"Sensational performances!" Jeffrey Lyons, NBC's Reel Talk
"...Zwick's epic story has numerous virtues apart from suspense and spectacle." Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
"A visually sumptuous, bullet-train-paced thriller with a really provocative theme." Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
"DiCaprio is remarkable..." Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor
Editor's Note
Set in Sierra Leone, BLOOD DIAMOND explores the role of diamond trading in the African civil war of the late 1990s. Narrowly escaping death when his village is invaded by R.U.F. militia, farmer Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) is enslaved at a diamond mine and has his family taken from him. When he discovers an unusually large stone he buries it, knowing it may be his only tool for retrieving his family. While Vandy is imprisoned, white African diamond smuggler Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) overhears an angry R.U.F. leader shouting at the farmer about the missing diamond, and he gets Vandy out of jail, then bribes him with the promise that he will help find Vandy's family in return for half the diamond's worth. Bonded by a common goal, the two men clash over drastically different values, but manage to stick together in pursuit of the prize. Also playing a part is fearless American journalist Maddie Bowen (Jennifer Connolly), whose flirtations with Archer and obsession with the truth land her in the middle of the bloody action. As the three embark on a dangerous journey filled with close calls, unlikely bonds form that threaten to change Archer's unfeeling ways. Meanwhile, a plotline following Vandy's beloved son shows us the horror being done to and by child soldiers at the hands of the so-called freedom-fighting rebel forces.
Addressing his serious subject with passion and skill, director Edward Zwick (THE LAST SAMURAI) delivers impressive action sequences that feel horrifically real without seeming excessive. While some critics have taken stabs at the film for its Hollywood elements, no one can argue against BLOOD DIAMOND's noble intentions or its stellar performances. To most viewers, the film is likely to provide a disturbing and educational look at a world many know little about.
Features Audio Commentary By Director Edward Zwick
Audio: English PCM 5.1 Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Audio: French, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Dubbed: French, Spanish
Featurettes: Focus Points - Featurettes & Production Diaries, Blood On The Stone - Follow A Diamond's Path From The Ground To The Stone, Becoming Archer - Profiling Leonardo DiCaprio, Journalism On The Front Line - Jennifer Connelly On Women Journalists At War, & Inside The Siege Of Freetown - Edward Zwick On One Of The Movie's Pivotal Sequences
Interactive Menus
Music Video: Shine On 'Em By Nas
Original Theatrical Trailer
Scene Selection
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
This Is A Blu-Ray DVD Made For Blue-Laser Format Players Which Produce Higher Quality Picture & Sound
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Review
By: Ray Ellis - Blogcritics.org Reviews
The conflict diamond trade -- diamonds illegally traded to finance rebellions and terrorism -- has come under international scrutiny of late, due at least in some small measure to the movie Blood Diamond. Set in 1999 Sierra Leone during its brutal civil war, this 2006 film raised the mainstream public's awareness of the problem. While conflict diamond operations now account for less than 1% of the international diamond business (by industry estimates), it remains a threat to global stability.
Blood Diamond may appear to have "social conscience" written all over it, but it's by no means preachy. The illicit diamond trade instead serves as a backdrop for what emerges as a brilliantly executed action thriller threaded with themes of greed, honor, and redemption. Produced and directed by Edward Zwick, whose previous credits include Glory and The Last Samauri, Blood Diamond is a relatively straightforward tale told in a circuitous, winding style.
Leonardo DiCaprio portrays Danny Archer, a Rhodesian mercenary turned diamond smuggler whose life becomes inextricably bound with that of Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), as both seek to recover a very large, very valuable, very rare pink diamond. It's an uneasy alliance at best, as their motives for recovering the diamond are at polar extremes. Archer sees the diamond as his ticket out of Africa, while Solomon views it as a means of rescuing his family, particularly his son (who has been brainwashed by the RUF) from the horrors of war.
It's hardly surprising that both DiCaprio and Hounsou were nominated for Oscars for their performances. Hounsou plays Solomon with an unswerving dignity tempered with quiet desperation, while DiCaprio's portrayal of Archer rivals Bogart's unflinching cynicism in his most memorable roles. DiCaprio is an actor who has finally grown into his face and can effectively pull off a Brit/ South African accent - no mean feat for an American.
It's the characters that drive this film, each of them lending credibility to the powder keg situation that was Sierra Leone in 1999. Jennifer Connelly's performance as a female investigative journalist was decried by some critics as a diversionary plot device during its theatrical release, but on viewing it on DVD, I found it to be a worthwhile depiction of female journalists in war zones.
Blood Diamond will stand among the truly great adventure films. It has all the angst of films like Casablanca and all the examination of the heart in conflict with itself that Grapes of Wrath and Treasure of Sierra Madre illustrate. The action is non-stop, and while it is a violent story, there is nothing gratuitous about it. The violence, depicted much as it happened, ultimately serves as an exclamation point that hammers home the atrocities that continue in Africa.
The two-disc special edition DVD release of Blood Diamond drives the point home even further. Special features include a 50-minute documentary entitled "Blood on the Stone" that illustrates the relative ineffectiveness of the Kimberley Process of certifying stones as being legal and free of smuggling. It's a documentary well worth viewing before viewing the actual movie. Other features point to how the actors prepared for their roles and how the filmmakers achieved the aura of realism inherent throughout the film.
Blood Diamond is a film that works on a number of levels without getting bogged down in relevance. It's a gripping film that explores a deplorable period in recent global history. Sadly, we haven't done nearly enough to correct the problem. We love our bling way too much.
Blood Diamond may appear to have "social conscience" written all over it, but it's by no means preachy. The illicit diamond trade instead serves as a backdrop for what emerges as a brilliantly executed action thriller threaded with themes of greed, honor, and redemption. Produced and directed by Edward Zwick, whose previous credits include Glory and The Last Samauri, Blood Diamond is a relatively straightforward tale told in a circuitous, winding style.
Leonardo DiCaprio portrays Danny Archer, a Rhodesian mercenary turned diamond smuggler whose life becomes inextricably bound with that of Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), as both seek to recover a very large, very valuable, very rare pink diamond. It's an uneasy alliance at best, as their motives for recovering the diamond are at polar extremes. Archer sees the diamond as his ticket out of Africa, while Solomon views it as a means of rescuing his family, particularly his son (who has been brainwashed by the RUF) from the horrors of war.
It's hardly surprising that both DiCaprio and Hounsou were nominated for Oscars for their performances. Hounsou plays Solomon with an unswerving dignity tempered with quiet desperation, while DiCaprio's portrayal of Archer rivals Bogart's unflinching cynicism in his most memorable roles. DiCaprio is an actor who has finally grown into his face and can effectively pull off a Brit/ South African accent - no mean feat for an American.
It's the characters that drive this film, each of them lending credibility to the powder keg situation that was Sierra Leone in 1999. Jennifer Connelly's performance as a female investigative journalist was decried by some critics as a diversionary plot device during its theatrical release, but on viewing it on DVD, I found it to be a worthwhile depiction of female journalists in war zones.
Blood Diamond will stand among the truly great adventure films. It has all the angst of films like Casablanca and all the examination of the heart in conflict with itself that Grapes of Wrath and Treasure of Sierra Madre illustrate. The action is non-stop, and while it is a violent story, there is nothing gratuitous about it. The violence, depicted much as it happened, ultimately serves as an exclamation point that hammers home the atrocities that continue in Africa.
The two-disc special edition DVD release of Blood Diamond drives the point home even further. Special features include a 50-minute documentary entitled "Blood on the Stone" that illustrates the relative ineffectiveness of the Kimberley Process of certifying stones as being legal and free of smuggling. It's a documentary well worth viewing before viewing the actual movie. Other features point to how the actors prepared for their roles and how the filmmakers achieved the aura of realism inherent throughout the film.
Blood Diamond is a film that works on a number of levels without getting bogged down in relevance. It's a gripping film that explores a deplorable period in recent global history. Sadly, we haven't done nearly enough to correct the problem. We love our bling way too much.
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