Bloody Diamonds

Some might say diamonds are a girl's best friend, but after watching the brutally violent Blood Diamond, the new film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Haunsou, you might start thinking otherwise.
DiCaprio is DannyArcher, a diamond smuggler from Zimbabwe. Haunsou is Solomon Vandy, a man who is forced to work in the mines after his family is taken by rebels. One day, Vandy finds a large pink diamond, which becomes his only bargaining chip once he finds out his son has been taken to become a soldier in the rebel army.
Director Ed Zwick, who has made a reputation for making politically-conscious movies, tackles the issue of conflict diamonds.
Conflict diamonds are diamonds that are mined in areas controlled by rebel groups trying to overthrow a government. Those diamonds illegally find their way into the marketplace, and the money from the trade goes toward buying arms and other things that help keep a civil war going.
Archer cares about getting paid and he doesn't much care, at least not initially, that the diamonds he smuggles are funding wars. Maddie Brown, played by Jennifer Connelly, does care and pricks at Archer's conscience and charms him in helping her to expose the whole mess.
Vandy, however, is at the center of it all, with his pink diamond and his all-consuming search for his family.
As with all things, the personal is the political, and it is through the prisms of these three people that Zwick peels back the carnage and exploitation created by conflict diamonds.
The movie's title is a literal one. Blood is spilled from the first frame to nearly the last. The most disturbing part of the movie is seeing children brainwashed by rebels into becoming cold-blooded killers. Their innocence is sucked out of them bit by bit and replaced with a horrifying numbness to murder.
DiCaprio gives one hell of a performance, proving once and for all that he is no longer that fresh-faced kid in Titanic. He is a grown-ass man, rough and reckless and ultimately decent.
Hansou is both strong and vulnerable, risking his life and that of others as he goes to the heights of sheer nuttiness to save his son. And Connelly's Brown is passionate and headstrong with just enough tenderness to make you still care.
Zwick keeps a quick pace throughout, which is remarkable for a movie that is over two hours long. He would have, however, done well to shave off maybe a half-hour instead of having such a corny ending.
But that's a minor complaint to a movie that delivers a truly powerful story about the price we pay for the sparkles on our fingers and around our necks.