Movie Review: Blood Diamond

Having heard rave reviews about it, and being interested in watching DiCaprio's acting prowess (he has matured in his last few movies supposedly - Catch me If you Can, the Aviator and th Departed, and I have seen neither), besides the fact that the subject deals with an industry that is one of the largest contributors to the Indian economy, my parents and I trooped to Metro Adlabs to watch Blood Diamond.

But the annoying part was that the cinema people started the movie as soon as the doors opened, i.e. before everyone was seated! At least give the audience 5 minutes to settle down! And what about the national anthem? Is Metro adlabs exempt from that rule? I know people feel resentful about being obliged to display their patriotism in a movie theatre of all places (but I sing along lustily each time), but a rule is a rule na?

But it is one of the most compelling movies containing violence that I have seen in a long time. Beautifully directed by Edward Zwick, this film showcases vistas from the green hills of Sierra Leone, the hubbub of its poor, bustling cities, the vineyards and ports around Cape Town, South Africa, the tumult and pain of the refugee camps in Guinea, the confusion in the midst of aid groups, soldiers celebrating over carnage, the camera rolling disinterestedly over destruction and hedonism alike.

It is the story of a poor fisherman Solomon Vandy (whose helplessness and quiet dignity and foolhardy desperate love is played to perfection by Djimon Hounsou) whose village is destroyed by the Revolutionary United Front, rebels attempting to overthrow the government through the revolting and base use of fear, who is captured by the RUF and made to work in their labour camps, sifting silt for diamonds, while his family escapes to safety. These diamonds would then be smuggled across the border in order to buy weapons to fund the rebel forces. Vandy finds a large diamond and is forced to hide it as the army comes to break apart the camp and arrest the illegal miners. In jail, he comes into contact with imprisoned smuggler Danny Archer (Dicaprio), who has him released on bail so that he can find the diamond and get out of the continent.

However, their troubles are far from over. Each must learn to trust each other to get his own ends accomplished - Solomon to regain his family and Archer the diamond. Enter a journalist Maddy something or other (played by Jennifer Connelly -why are women in these films so forgettable? They always are supporting actors who want to make a difference), who is looking for a story on the diamond cartel's role in the dimaond smuggling trade. After a harrowing search through refugee camps together, Vandy finds his wife and daughters in a refugee camp in neighbouring Guinea, only to discover his studious son has been captured by RUF forces. His pain is revealed beautifully in his animal-like, impotent screams of fury and fear and helplessness and emotions we cannot even fathom - dreams shattered along with an already non-existent reality.

Convinced by Archer that the diamond and the money earned from it will help get his son back, Archer and Vandy set on the trail back to the camp. They encounter rebel forces, the army and assorted white men serving their own interests on the way. Their lives are nearly lost when Vandy discovers the RUF in the next village, celebrating their mindless destruction and sees his son playing cards, so vastly altered from the loving boy he was. He confronts him.... ony to find a brainwashed powerhungry monster in a frail boy's body. Violence ensues, and Vandy and Archer escape.

However, another interest has materialised in the form of general Coetzee, who wants the diamond for himself. But all's well that ends well when only Archer, Vandy and his son make the run for freedom. Archer perishes on the way, in the continent he was born in and trying to escape, swallowed by the magnificience, the hatred, the violence, the love of a land that only a native can know, clutching at the earth that became red through the blood spilled on it by its people. Vandy goes on on to London to sell it to the cartel, and appear as star witness in the Kimberley meeting that instituted the Kimberley Process.

The most touching scenes for me were the ones involving Vandy's relationship with his son, the dreams in his eyes as he talks of the future he wants for him, the one-on-one between him and his son after it all, when with quiet authority and love he tells his boy "I am your father, and you will be my son". The most jarring were all the RUF ones, the senseless celebrations over senseless killings, the brainwashings, the discarding of meaningful values, and indeed, reason, loyalty severely misdirected, the injection of violence into the blood by the means of drugs and literally hypnotism, the horrid aliases, the making of child soldiers. The cacophonic rap music that attains a character of its own in such an atmosphere.

Would people stop buying diamonds after all this? I hope not, because for every weapon bought, there are still legitimate livelihoods that depend on this, entire countries whose economies depend on their mineral production. Yes, there is corruption everywhere, in every industry, at the smallest level, from the government clerk to the illegal broker to the kickbacks to political parties, and yes, ALL of it should stop. This conflict was going on in the late 1990's and into 2000 when we were in Africa, and De Beers, the largest diamond company in the world, was being forced to take a stand, create a legitimate channel through which diamonds from these conflict-ridden countries could reach the market. Hence the Kimberley Process was instituted, that required each diamond to be certified regarding its place of origin, and a guarantee that it was conflict-free. What more can it do? Billions of dollars are invested in the mining and manufacturing of these stones throughout the world. Yes, mines dont last forever. The diamond mines in South India stopped yielding in the 1700s. Should entire companies and global industries be shut down because a few thousand assholes in one corner of the world have a totally skewed perspective of how it should be run?

im sorry if I sound unsympathetic. But when a poor nation or people attain too much wealth too soon, the power it brings DOES bring along greed and corruption. You see it at a mico level in nouveau riche people also - the way they go crazy spending when they attain that type of power -the page 3 and even the political circuit. Is some of it at least a direct affect of colonialism? Maybe. in the case of peoples such as the native Americans and Africans, who were exposed to and infected by a greed on a scale that was hitherto unknown to them, they have suffered greatly in the quest for greater wealth. Both peoples, and even Indians, while we're at it, are cultures that have lived close to the land, taking only what they needed, and giving back, maintaining a balance with the earth's resources. Subsistence, it was called, a word today that has a negative connotation. Along came the West with its new-fangled ideas of the Industrial Revolution and wanting more more more, in search of other lands and resources to fulfil its newfound hunger. (This is not to say the West was never corrupt. Back in the medieval and Victorian eras when everyone was barbaric and bathed once a month, its fair share of scandals, both moral and economic, have erupted during Henry VII, Sir Walter Raleigh, the Armada etc. Yes, the Industrial Revolution and the discovery of new lands allowed them to diversify their greed and euphemise it, calling it civilisation).

Of course, the Native Americans were pretty much wiped out during the process of colonialisation, and those that are surviving today are pitifully poor, of the very little that I am aware of them. India has flourished, but at the cost of a whole lot, its land, its integrity to some degree, its customs (though Im sure many of us are thankful that some regressive ones have been abolished). Africa, a land of nomads and farmers, is still not sure what to do with itself. Its vast mineral wealth has been discovered by foreign interests, its arable land in control of the whites, and they were made slaves in their country the way Indians never were. In Zimbabwe, groups of black men would take over a white man's farm and drive the owners out, but they wouldnt know what to do with the land! Rather than legitimately engaging in trade with foreign interests the way Botswana has done (but then, the Motswana are a very proud race, and its an amazing example for all African nations to follow, to consolidate its interests and develop a vision the way it has), natives are fighting amongst themselves for power and distrbution, and engaging in very unreasonable methods of doing that.

And dont give me that bullshit of artificial scarcity. America buries 1/3 of its corn crop every year so as to not upset the economic balance in the world. Economics over humanity everywhere, so why blame diamonds? They are a luxury, not a necessity like food that could be sent to all the starving people in the world.

Please people, violence doesnt get us anywhere. Violence is the resort of the impotent, those who have no language, no meaningful expression, whose greed and hatred has overtaken every other emotion. Once you come across as united to outsiders, no matter what the conflict going on internally, no one can point a finger at you. In this case, entire countries are falling apart! The kind of development Mumbai, Surat, Palanpur have seen because of the diamond trade, is completely missing in the images of Sierra Leone shown in the movie. When business is done legitimately, everyone gets a share, the people, the government, and the nation as a whole benefits. Yes, no one expects everyone to agree with the government all the time, but there are other ways of showing discontent, of instituting change. By killing and attempting to convert people to your cause through violent means, there will be no one left to vote, and your country wont progress. Yes, illicit pleasures will come through underground channels, but when your wealth is lost then what? You are left with nothing. Truly an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

To me, this movie is less about diamonds and more about the disintegration of the very best in human nature. Yes, man is a survivor, he is enterprising. And this isnt the first time wars have been fought for power. While I am the last one to complain about the Industrial Revolution (I love email and the phone and all the communication I have with my sweetie, and am thankful for the fact that I met him at all, and that I was born at all - you think in India as it was in the 16th century my parents, a Vaishnav and a Jain would have married?), it has unleashed an appetite that devours everything in its wake. I pray that the earth quickly manifests its regenerative powers, because it doesnt look like we humans are going to stop anytime soon.

Caveat Emptor indeed. But also, the customer is king. We have a voice. Let us call for ethics in every business at every level - so what if we have to pay more? Money is just pieces of paper. If we learn to live within our means there will be more than enough for everyone.