[REVIEW] Blood Diamond

[rfmcdonald]

The problem with Blood Diamond is that this movie is a competent paint-by-numbers job. The origins of the blood diamond trade in the civil wars that wrecked Sierra Leone and Liberia in the 1990s is portrayed well, as is the involvement of mercenary companies from post-apartheid South Africa in the export of these gemstones, as is the human devastation caused by--among other factors--the use of child soldiers, as is the general indifference of Westerners to these traumas until diamond consumers began to realize their own complicity in those horrors. The direction works, the actors are more than competent, and the dialogue generally good. Blood Diamond was just too predictable. (The Heart of Darkness stylings don't seem that relevant--yes they're clichéd, but the clichés are in my opinion quite justified.)