Blood Diamond Ali

Blood Diamond is a movie about Africa taking place in 1998. Africa is at war over diamonds. This movie is very graphic and violent just like the book, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. I would highly recommend this movie. It truly shows how ugly war can be especially if children are involved. One of the main themes within this movie is Never Give Up. I say this because the father in the movie Solomon he never gives up on getting his family, and with his drive and compassion for them he gets exactly what he wanted and more. This movie adds to the book A Long Way gone because they are basically the same thing but now after seeing the movie visualizing the book is a whole lot easier. Things that were similar between the two are, people were killed and captured by rebels; young boys were taught how to use guns and how to kill people; The United States was protecting African citizens; and an old man was left all alone in a village. This movie educates viewers by telling us that not all is right in the world, that they're are still child soldiers in the world. It teaches us that we seem to focus on ourselves and our country and not everyone else that seems to be suffering for the basic necessities for everyday life. One thing that was really meaningful to me was when Solomon finds his family but he is not allowed to see them. This part in the movie breaks my heart because you can truly see how much he cares for his family, and how frustrated he is. Solomon travelled all that way to be separated just by a fence from his family. Another thing that I thought was unforgettable was when the camera showed two five year old boys with huge guns in their hand having them shooting at manikins. This just blew me away how graphic and how messed up that was. Dialogue was very important within this film by portraying a character and their feelings. Maddie the journalist stated this " people wouldn't be buying rings back home, if they knew it cost someone else their hand". This describes her character very well because, it is crazy how no one knows what else is going on in the world, and this is her goal to let everyone know how hard other people lives are. Another important point of dialogue is, " how can my own people do this to one another". Solomon said this. This is important because why would people in general let alone people from the same country, would run around killing one another over something as little as diamonds. Tony Medley wrote a review of this movie and stated "Most of us take the nice, soft life we have for granted. We rarely stop to think about what it's like in other parts of the world". I learned that this is an issue that everyone should address. We need to stop being so focused on our well being, and worry about the people that are starving down the street. It should be our goal to help everyone, many of us are blessed with healthy life and a steady income. Not everyone gets that privilege, so why not start helping our human race succeed, and strive for everyone to live a long and happy life.

African boys training for war

Blood Diamond Review by Gabbie S

The main theme in "Blood Diamond" is to never give up. I would recommend this movie to anyone because it is very eye opening to not only Africa, but to insight of what other countries are like. Although they aren't all like Africa, it shows that not every country is like America. The dialogue in this movie was cynical in parts and very heart warming in other parts. An example of the cynical dialogue would be when Danny is being sarcastic with Maddy. People in Africa weren't very trusting in nature, so they tended to have more of a dark sense of humor. "Blood Diamond" was basically a visualization of the book "A Long Way Gone" I found it very helpful to see the actions rather than just read them, I feel as if watching the movie will help me visualize the book better as I read. The most meaningful action in the movie to me was at the ending when Danny gave Solomon his diamond back, and made sure that his family was taken care of. This was a great act of sincerity from Danny because it showed that even though he was very cynical throughout the movie, he really did have a good heart and wasn't going to just leave Solomon to defend for himself in Africa.

In this picture it shows Danny and Solomon walking away to find the diamond alone, this to me shows the trust building between the two.

Empire Magazine rated the movie with four stars, saying that it is a violent movie. The magazine also state that the performances were great along with "proactive ideas and gripping action scene"s. I have learned from these reviews that even when it comes to reviewing movie, countries are different. The UK seemed to like the movie where as The New York Times says the movie was a "foolish thriller". 

Journal 5 Blood Diamond Review By Daniel

The movie Blood Diamond takes place in Sierra Leone during the civil war in 1999. There are three main characters in the film, Solomon a fisherman who is trying to find his family, Danny the diamond smuggler, and Maddy they journalist that is trying to write a story about the illegal diamond smuggling going on. Solomon and Danny meet in jail and after Danny hears rumors of a pink diamond Solomon hid while working in the rebel diamond mine. He sees this as his ticket out of Africa and gets Solomon out of jail. The two end up working together to find the diamond and Solomon's family. In order to travel to get to the diamond Danny makes a deal with Maddy to provided information about the diamond smuggling. The diamonds the rebels are finding are being used to aid the war and causing massive bloodshed in Africa tearing the country apart.

The movie shows how the country has fallen apart because of illegal trade of diamonds. Many families are separated, killed, or forced to work in the mines and become soldiers. Solomonds son faces the fate as becoming a solider for the RUF. His son kills innocent people and has been brainwashed to think hes doing the right thing. It is really sad seeing so many young people turned into these killers. The diamond smugglers only care money they bring in for the diamonds but don't value the human life that it took to get the diamond. Danny however started out as the typical diamond smuggler but had a change of heart towards the end of the movie. When Danny was dying from the gun shot he gave back the diamond to Solomon and told him to sell it and bring his family out of Africa. With Danny's information given to Maddy about the illegal diamonds this brought the end to the civil war.

Solomon finds a pink diamond and hides it.

The common link of this movie and A Long Way Gone is the use of boy soldiers. We see how the boys act when they kill for the first time and the amount of drugs each is on. When the rebels attack the village so many people try and escape but most are killed just like in the book. The only difference is Solomon's son is fighting for the RUF and Beah is fighting against the RUF.

I would recommend this film to be watched. It is an eye opener of a whole country being effected by diamonds just so that we can have rings with big sparkling diamonds on them. This movie has a lot of fighting scenes and sad ones like when Danny calls Maddy before he dies. In most of the reviews they saw this movie as good and a must watch. Some of them didn't like the ending because it follows the typically happy ending. I thought the end was good and glad to see Solomon testify. There was one review inpractical I agree with what they are saying. The review by Spiritually Practices writes, "Blood Diamond is as important as any film we've seen over the years about the Holocaust. It shares with them the vital message: We must not let this happen again". If we don't learn from our mistakes what happen in Sierra Leone will happen again.

Journal 5: Blood Diamonds Review; Sydney Alspach

In the film, Blood Diamonds, there is a lot of horror and insanity shown through out the film. The main point of this film is that there are diamonds in Africa and people will search for them and sell them to other country's to make a profit. However this is highly illegal in Africa. There are people called the rebels, which capture people from villages that they burnt down and have them work for them or they kill the people. The rebels take a father named Solomon Vandy and have him search for diamonds. If any one would have found a diamond that are supposed to give it to the leader of the rebels. If they found a diamond and didn't give it to him and he found out or saw that they had it he would kill that person. Solomon found the biggest diamond that had ever been seen in Africa, and he dug a whole in the ground and buried it in the ground. This is when the whole movie begun because now the African army had taken them all to jail and Danny got Solomon out of jail. 

This movie relates to the book "A Long Way Gone" because in both the film and book there are children who have to learn to be independent and how to survive on there own. The kids in this film are forced to murder innocent people, it is so messed up and insane to me as a viewer to see how awful the world really can be. This film also relates to the villagers being attacked just like in the book. 

In this picture Solomon is looking at his children that are being kept by the African Army. 

The review in the New York times says its a foolish thiller film. I  think they said this because it is such a dramatic film to begin with. The New York Times does a great job getting all of the main plots of the movie into their review. "Good as gold, Solomon earns a sizable share of screen time, and though the performance is expectedly sympathetic, the character has none of Danny’s complexity, which means that he’s inherently less interesting."(New York Times) This really symbolizes and shows how Solomon is in this film. Overall I really enjoyed watching this film it really gave me a different perspective on diamonds. 

Journal 5 Mohammed

 Blood Diamond is set in Sierra Leone 1999 in the middle of the Sierra Leone civil war. In the beginning of the movie Solomon Vandy, a local fisherman,who is captured by the RUF rebels trying to let his family escape during an attack on their village finds a big diamond refereed to as a "pink" and teams up with Danny Archer, a diamond smuggler and ex mercenary, to get the diamond and  Solomon's  family out of Africa and the war.
     The movie really portrays the devastating effects on Africa and the people of Africa throughout the war. there are a bunch of diffrent scenes in the movie where the RUF rebels attack villages and slaughter the people there. Taking limbs, killing, or taking them for their army.
     During the movie Danny Archer Explains to Maddie a journalist how to diamonds are  illegally exported out of Sierra Leone to merchants in other countries and these resources are used to finance the war such as guns and drugs. It shows Dia which is Solomans son being taken by the RUF and brainwashed and tricked into killing and doing drugs. In the book A Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah goes into great detail this which relates really well to the movie.
     The most meaningful character in the movie in my opinion is Danny Archer. They start the movie off as showing him as a greedy rude diamond smuggler who who cares only about his money. Throughout the movie after meeting Soloman and Maddie he progresses into a more kind person. Everything becomes more than just about the money. He eventually falls for Maddie and leaves himself behind and gives the Diamond to Soloman so that he could find his family and live a better life.

Three main characters in Blood Diamond

    In the reviews most gave a good rating about the movie with some filming issues stated. James 

Berardinelli says "Pacing issues aside, this is a well constructed movie ". Most of the reviews focused on the workman ship of the movie rather than the actual message, which is understandable cause they are there to rate the movie. But if more people took account the message behind the movie i think it would get a lot better reviews.

Blood Diamond Review, Journal 5- Estelle

Blood Diamond takes place in Sierra Leone, during a civil war in 1999. The country is broken up between rebel factions, known as the Revolutionary United Front and the government. These rebels terrorize the locals in such a horrible way and often enslave them to harvest diamonds. Blood diamonds are diamonds that are mined in war zones to help finance the war. Diamond companies around the world buy these diamonds which gives profit to the warlords. This leads to the development of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. The main characters in this film are Danny Archer, Solomon Vandy, and Maddy Bowen.

I would recommend this film. I personally liked it. To me it told the story in a very detailed perspective. It makes you realize the effects of war. You are actually able to visualize it and see how people behaved during this time in Africa. It shows you what these people did to families and kids. They didn't care about anything other than the money. I started to think about all of the diamonds in stores and where they could have come from. It made me not want to own one because I don't know where it truly came from and if people died because of it, I wouldn't want any part of owning it. It also shows you what someone would be willing to go through to get their family back even when you don't have any hope in seeing them again. There's always hope.

Solomon and his son once he was able to find him. 

Blood Diamond gives you a better understanding of what these child soldiers went through and how their lives were flipped upside down. Their childhoods were completely stripped from them and forced them to lose their humanities. These men made them do things they would never imagine doing if they would of never been taken captive. This is a big theme in A Long Way Gone. Being able to visualize what these kids are turned into compared to reading about it hits you harder. 

Many of the reviews I read on MRQE had a sort of sarcastic tone throughout them. Eye for Film wrote, "it sets up formulaic situations and then deftly dodges them, as if a straightforward narrative would be too smooth and false in such a combustible continent.".  Although there were many other reviews that gave a good rating and thought the movie was good. I was not very surprised at what was said. Many people have different opinions about how a movie should be. 

Blood Diamond review by Philip Mattix

     Blood Diamond is set in Sierra Leone 1999 in the midst of the Sierra Leone civil war. In this movie Solomon Vandy, a local fisherman, finds a diamond and teams up with Danny Archer, a diamond smuggler ex mercenary, to get the diamond and  Solomon's  family out of Africa.
     This movie really showed the effects of war on the people of Africa. There are multiple scenes in the movie where the RUF attacks villages. The villagers are slaughtered, mutilated and taken prisoner for forced labor or child soldiers.
     Diamonds are illegally exported out of Sierra Leone and  these resources are used to finance the war. this movie also shows the RUF brainwashing children to turn them into child soldiers. these children are given drugs,alcohol and taught to kill. In A Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah goes into great detail and description on the making of child soldiers. Reading his book and watching Blood Diamond can be a good  resource of understanding the topic on child soldiers.
   The most complex,interesting and deepest character in this movie was Danny Archer. He is a battle harden ex special forces soldier who works as a mercenary smuggling diamonds out of the country.  This  antihero is characterized by being  cynical, greedy,selfish, only caring about himself and what he can get out of anything, anyone or situation. We are given a good insight on his character traits through his quotes. " I like to get kissed before i get fucked.'' ''God left this place long ago" referring to Africa and ''T.I.A." ,This is Africa'' ,You come here with your laptop computers, your malaria medicine and you little bottles of hand sanitizer and think you can change the outcome, huh?. Despite his selfishness and fuck the world attitude he does go through a character transformation at the end of the movie. In the end be fore he dies he gives the diamond back to Solomon, helps him get his family out of Africa. And gives essential information to Maddy Bowen for her story about conflict diamonds.Blood Diamond is a great movie with a powerful message. I would recommend it.
   

The movie reviews on MRQE.com were mostly on the positive side praising the quality of the film work and its message. The more critical reviews complained about the length of the film, story and plot gaps and cliques. What i learned from these reviews was that some people were mostly concerned with film quality and other technical mistakes. I  personally agree with the statement that ''Zwick is a rare director that can still pull enjoyment and a powerful message out of such a film, and does so gracefully.