Just as Brad Pitt commands as well as almost demands your attention on screen, Leonardo DiCaprio is just as powerful and pretty much hits home runs with every new film. DiCaprio’s work in “The Departed” (click here to read my review) is nothing but superb and, like Robert Redford, can even make “The Great Gatsby” period piece watchable (of course the latter drops off fast because of Tobey McGuire’s lame effort). I’m looking at “Blood Diamond” today and DiCaprio does his usual wonderful turn, but the best performance is by a relatively unknown co-star whose physical acting is second to none in this film. “Blood Diamond” is powerful and intense, so buckle your seatbelt for this ride. BTW … both Pitt and DiCaprio co-starred in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” (click here to read my review) 13 years after “Blood Diamond” and were just as good as ever.
‘Blood Diamond’
(2006; 143 minutes; rated R; directed by Edward Zwick and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Honsou and Jennifer Connelly)
A TALE OF TWO MEN – SIMILAR BUT DISSIMILAR
(NOTE: I expanded this review with additional opinion and trivia as well as with the updating of links on May 15, 2018. I again expanded the review on Oct. 8, 2020. I again expanded the review on Sept. 21, 2024.)
It was no surprise that “Blood Diamond” earned five Oscar nominations, including one each for the top two actors and three more in technical categories. I was surprised that it didn’t win since it is a statement film (this one about the so-called “conflict” or “blood” diamonds that financed wars in Africa) and especially in the political wheelhouse of liberal Hollywood.
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Despite its wonderful message (and Hollywood at least has this one right), “Blood Diamond” didn’t win for best actor since Forest Whitaker beat out DiCaprio. Since I didn’t see Whitaker’s effort as Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland,” I cannot say it was inferior – but I will say Whitaker must have been outstanding to go even a single vote better than DiCaprio as diamond smuggler and soldier-of-fortune “Danny Archer.”
What was a surprise (at least to me) and a disappointment is that Djimon Honsou didn’t win Best Supporting Actor over Alan Arkin in “Little Miss Sunshine.” I’m not saying Arkin didn’t do an Oscar-worthy effort (quite the opposite), but he didn’t deserve to win over the career-defining role of Honsou’s “Solomon Vandy” as fisherman and father on a quest to rescue his son from homicidal rebels trying to make a convert. Honsou was no flash-in-the-pan as the former model had already earned one Oscar nomination before filming “Blood Diamond.”
The film combines great action, excellent special effects but, best of all, great interaction among the main players: DiCaprio, Honsou and Oscar winner (not for this one) Jennifer Connelly, who plays journalist “Maddy Bowen.” They comprise a character-driven triangle that winds up, but doesn’t end, with the death of one. All three do remarkable work worthy of any cinematic accolade.
With a long run-time of nearing 2½ hours, “Blood Diamond” is vast in its scope across the African continent. It is the story of a kidnapped father (Honsou) who forced to work grubbing for diamonds at gunpoint by rebels who are trying to take over Sierra Leone in the late 1990s. He finds a massive diamond, tries to hide it and gets caught up in the civil war as he tries to rescue his young son, who has been turned by rebels into a mindless killer wielding an AK-47.
Enter DiCaprio as a mercenary solider-turned-diamond smuggler who finds out about the massive stone and works on Honsou to get it to sell to a diamond company that buys the so-called “conflict” or “blood” diamonds – the stones are sold by rebel forces to finance their revolution. The story plays out as the father tries to reunite his family; DiCaprio seeks the financial freedom the diamond offers him; and Connelly is along for the ride to expose the whole mess.
It is the story of the two men and the unlikely bond formed by them that drives the film. DiCaprio, despite being driven by greed, is more like Honsou in his soul than with his one-time master who now directs a private army or the soulless executives of the diamond company who pay him for bloodied stones. Both actors bring this to life on the screen and ends with the cinematic death of one.
It takes time and some nice work by the supporting cast, especially Arnold Vosloo as “Colonel Coeteze,” and David Harewood as the insanely violent “Captain Poison,” but the convoluted tale spins out to an inevitable conclusion that ends with Honsou speaking to the diamond convention in which nations signed a treaty to keep conflict diamonds off the market.
It’s too bad that so much misery brought about such a sensational film.
In any case, here’s a rundown of the work of some of the principal cast:
An Oscar winner and six-time nominee and two-time Golden Globe winner and three-time nominee, DiCaprio should have been a first time winner in 2006, if not for “Blood Diamond” then for “The Departed.” He is just totally watchable and is scary-good when he immerses himself into a role and he was nominated for an Oscar for this one. Playing a white from Zimbabwe (his character still says Rhodesia), DiCaprio has the accent and mannerisms and patter down. He’s also a good action actor. DiCaprio was also nominated for “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” “The Wolf of Wall Street” (two nominations), “The Aviator” and “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” He won for “The Revenant” – ouch, and this one the least of all the others.- A two-time Oscar nominee and Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Honsou, who had been nominated for an Oscar in 2002 for “In America,” does as good a job acting with his physical presence as he does with his emotions. His body exudes a spectrum of emotions throughout the film. Honsou’s countenance is usually stolid in his mission to find his family. All-in-all, a remarkable work by an excellent actor. He was in “Gladiator” with Russell Crowe as well as “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
- It would have been easy for Oscar winner and Golden Globe winner Connelly to get lost in the film. However, her strength and ability allow her to elevate the journalist character she portrays. Connelly is utterly convincing in her character’s motivation and it would have been easy for the role to be expanded. Connelly won her Oscar and Globe for the somewhat disingenuous and mostly overrated “A Beautiful Mind” and was also in “Noah.” It’s too bad that she was in the also-overrated “Little Children.”
Vosloo, who is a native South African of an acting family, is very effective as the cold, calculating man in charge of a private army being paid to kill the rebels. However, he, too, is into diamond smuggling and wants to get his hands on Honsou’s diamond. His character represents much in the film and his showdown with DiCaprio is excellent. Vosloo has a couple of lines his first language: Afrikaans. He has been in “The Mummy” and its sequel.- Harewood does a chilling job as the warlord “Captain Poison,” whose violence keeps his charges in order from chopping off hands of potential voters to killing those who would try to steal from him. Harewood, like Connelly, uses his talent to elevate his character from the pack. He was in “Homeland” and “The Merchant of Venice.”
- Kagiso Kuypers plays Honsou’s screen son “Dia Vandy” in what has been his only film credit. His scenes are chilling and “Blood Diamond” offers him a small role, but an effective one.
Back in the day in Hollywood, big stars had multiple movies come out in a calendar year. In one example, Humphrey Bogart had three big films out in 1954: “The Caine Mutiny” (click here for my review), “Sabrina” and “The Barefoot Contessa.” So, it’s rare that an actor has two sensational films come out in the same year. I don’t believe Bogie was as uniformly outstanding in all three of his in 1954 as DiCaprio is in “The Departed” and “Blood Diamond” from 2006.
Not surprisingly, “Blood Diamond” was tepid at the box office list in 2006 with its conscience-driven story and intense violence. While even more violent and profane, DeCaprio in “The Departed” was ranked No. 15 with $132.3 million. At the same time, his equally good effort in “Blood Diamond” nabbed only 56th place with $57.3 million (“Little Miss Sunshine” was 51st with $59.8 million), according to Box Office Mojo. Worldwide “Blood Diamond” made $171.4 million on a budget of $100 million, according to Wiki. Other films from that year that I’ve reviewed are:
- “The Departed” (even better than sensational) – click here for my review
- “Grandma’s Boy” (very funny stoner flick) – click here for my review
- “Thank You for Smoking” (also sensational) – click here for my review
- “V for Vendetta” (excellent drama) – click here for my review
Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):
Journeyman actor and Emmy nominee Stephen Collins has a small role as “Ambassador Walker” and is lost in the film’s debris. He’s also been in “All the President’s Men” (click here for my review) and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.”- Directly from IMDb.com: “At the end of the film, Solomon Vandy addresses a conference on blood diamonds in Kimberley, South Africa, describing his experiences. This conference actually took place in Kimberley in 2000. The conference resulted in the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, a system now used by diamond traders to certify the origin of diamonds, in order to curb the trade and sale of conflict diamonds.”
- DiCaprio and Russell Crowe were the director’s first choices to play “Danny Archer.” Both actors worked together in the western “The Quick and the Dead” (click here for my review).
- Directly from IMDb.com: “When Danny Archer arrives in South Africa, there are two women standing in front of the airport and he walks by them. These women are Leonardo DiCaprio‘s mother and grandmother.”
- Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “The attack helicopter seen near the end of the film is a Mi-24 SuperHind Mk IV. The helicopter started life as a Russian Mi-24 (NATO designation ‘Hind’) but underwent an extensive upgrade program by Advanced Technology and Engineering, a South African arms company. Upgrades include improvements to avionics, weapons systems, and counter measures.”
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