Welp, mission accomplished, Blood Diamond. The Oscar Bait was cast and look at you! 5 nominations, including three biggies: Best Actor, Supporting Actor, and Editing. And casting Djimon Hounsou as an African man who's been wronged? There's a first. Well done, indeed.
It's social commentary. A message movie. A prestige picture. Call it whatever you'd like, but despite some chilling glimpses at the abduction, brainwashing, and corruption of African children, this is a historical drama made with major studio backing and set against the backdrop of the vicious, brutal world of conflict diamond mining.
This is Leo's forgotten Oscar-nominated performance. He's certainly white enough to play a shifty, Rhodesian scoundrel and his accent is pretty solid. One could see Brad Pitt doing this in his sleep. Since, god forbid, the movie couldn't be under two hours, we get an unnecessary doomed romance with Jennifer Connelly, whose appearance here and more recently in Top Gun: Maverick reminded me that for years she's been the go-to "Hot, but also brainy and resilient" co-star who could easily be cut from a movie but tradition dictates the lead must have a love interest. She comes off fine mainly through sheer force of will.
Hounsou is the real deal. He's got that 'single tear' game down pat and you can't help but root for him. The script is obvious and edges close to preachy, but stops just short of that to allow this eminently likeable actor to deliver soulful monologues and dialogue while having to take abuse from a scumbag smuggler. He finally gets to fuck some shit up near the end and you can see why he'd be a Marvel villain (albeit a minor one).
Edward Zwick is one of those unassuming, big budget studio directors whose work is always admired and handsome, yet rarely rocks the boat. A shitty director can make a shitty movie. A good director can make a shitty movie. A good director can also make a movie that isn't shitty, but nevertheless isn't quite as good as it could be. Zwick is this kind of filmmaker. Middle-of-the-road. Glory, Legends of the Fall, Courage Under Fire, The Last Samurai, Pawn Sacrifice. Technically, these are "good" movies, but far from classics (Glory comes the closest). His most daring work may still be his debut feature ...About Last Night and Defiance insists it's a good movie, but although I saw it in a theater, I barely remember much of it except the crummy shutter speed trickery.
There's enough good to outweigh the lame here. Old-fashioned? Yup, but it goes down easy.
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