Blood Diamond (www.the-usher.com)

"They have taken everything!"

As the rebel uprising continues to make Sierra Leone on of the most dangerous nations in Africa, it is the illegal trade in diamonds that is funding the continued conflict. Danny Archer (DiCaprio) makes his living trading weapons for the precious stones but to sell them he has to cross the border into Liberia and get past the country's armed forces. When he is captured he overhears a conversation between a captured rebel captain and Solomon Vandy (Hounsou). The captain claims that Solomon has found a huge uncut diamond while working as a slave for the rebels but he denies it. Danny doesn't believe and offers him the chance to get back to his family but a diamond of that size brings them to the attention of everyone in the country.

Director Edward Zwick is used to mixing epic tales with glorious action and the good news is that 'Blood Diamond' keeps up his momentum.

After transporting you back to the war civil war in 'Glory', onto feudal Japan in 'The Last Samurai' and into the trenches of the Great War in 'Legends of the Fall', Edward Zwick is no stranger to telling epic, sweeping stories and setting them to against a dramatic moment in history. 'Blood Diamond' transports you to late 1990s Sierra Leone, a country ravaged by civil war as rebels tried to storm the capital Freetown and take control of the African nation. The illegal trade in conflict diamonds is what is funding the buying of weapons for the rebels. The selling of diamonds from countries that are at war is against UN conventions and international law but the demand from Western countries means that the gems will end up in the jewellery in all the upmarket stores. This is still a real problem in many African nations and it is the people who are driven into slavery that are worked to death mining for the diamonds.

Creating a story around this real life situation could have easily been fallen into either making a huge political statement or filling the film with too much sentiment. 'Blood Diamond' takes a little bit of both and mixes in a lot of action. This is a route that director Edward Zwick and his creative team have gone down before, so they are well accustomed to bringing these types of story to life. For this story we have an arms dealer, a reporter and a diamond slave working together to get back to the spot were a priceless uncut diamond is hidden. The stone could change everything for them and anyone else who finds it and of course there are people who will do anything to get their hands on it.

Playing the role of arms dealer and conflict diamond smuggler Danny Archer is Leonardo DiCaprio. Continuing to take on challenging roles, DiCaprio throws his all into the role of a man driven by greed who is about to become aware of the consequences of his actions. Donning a Zimbabwean accent, he creates a character that really pushes his skills and proves that he can handle action as well as drama. Djimon Hounsou continues to prove that he is one of the best character actors working today. He is an extremely powerful presence on screen and is able to convey shear emotion with devastating effect and will move you in every dramatic situation. Jennifer Connelly has a smaller but pivotal role as journalist Maddy Bowen. She is the woman who opens Danny Archer's eyes to the problems that Sierra Leone is facing. Kagiso Kuypers is exceptional as Solomon's son Dia and Arnold Vosloo plays a suitable villain as Colonel Coetzee.

'Blood Diamond' is a real step forward for action movies. By mixing realistic action sequences with a story that highlights a real world problem, director Edward Zwick and his creative team have moved on the genre again and shown the way forward for intelligent mainstream filmmaking.

Not Available

Glory

The Last Samurai

Legends of the Fall

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2007