2006 Blood Diamond adventure film

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Amid the bloody chaos of the brutal civil war in Sierra Leone in 1999, clever businessmen are trying to capitalize on the resulting anarchy. The 2006 film "Blood Diamond" tells the story of a former soldier who smuggled precious stones. The premiere of the picture caused a wave of criticism against the authorities of the Republic of South Africa with accusations of human rights violations.

General information

An adventure drama directed by Edward Zwick at Warner Bros. Two actors auditioned for the lead role of a young smuggler involved in the search and sale of precious stones. In the final list, the creators of the picture had two names: Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio. As a result, the role of Danny Archer went to the latter. The second significant male role was chosen Djimon Hounsou, known for the films "Gladiator", "Constantine. Lord of Darkness" and many others. Black American actor playedAfrican fisherman Solomon Vandi. Jennifer Connelly, who won an Oscar for A Beautiful Mind, was chosen to play the lead female role. The famous Indian actor Gaurav Chopra appeared in a small role in the film.

The script was written by Charles Leavitt and S. Gaby Mitchell, who have studied the diamond industry very deeply for this. The soundtrack to "Blood Diamond" was written by the popular Californian composer Howard James Newton, who helped create about a hundred films, including "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald", "Lemony Snicket: 33 Unfortunate Events" and "I Am Legend". The film entered the top ten in 2006, received many nominations for the most prestigious film awards and the award for Best Supporting Actor (Djimon Hones) from the US National Board of Film Critics.

Storyline

The title of the picture refers to the so-called blood diamonds, which are mined in war zones and then sold to finance their continuation. Since human rights are not respected in the zone of military conflicts, and mining is often carried out using slave labor, sellers (field commanders and diamond global companies) receive very high profits.

In 1999, Sierra Leone is in a bloody civil war. Fisherman Solomon Vandi is captured by revolutionary rebels during a massacre in the village. A strong man is sent to work in the diamond mines, and his son is recruited into the "children's army". Solomon finds a huge pink diamondand tries to hide the find, but fails.

Chasing Pink Diamond

After being released by government forces, he ends up in jail, where he is released by Danny Archer, a former military man now smuggling diamonds. They agree that Solomon will show the location of the diamond in exchange for Archer helping him find his family.

Under the guise of cameramen with journalist Maddy Bowen, partners cross the border, for which they must give material for a reportage that reveals a business scheme for blood diamonds. She considers it unacceptable to look indifferently at the crimes committed by businessmen. After a series of adventures, they rescue their son and mine the diamond.

Facts

The film "Blood Diamond" ends with the scene where African fisherman Solomon Vandi goes to a conference in Kimberley. He plans to talk about his story with the found pink diamond. A similar conference actually took place in this city six years earlier (in 2000). The result of her work was the opening of the Kimberley Certification Process, which was designed to exclude from the market circulation of raw materials obtained illegally and in the zone of military conflicts.

Now all mined diamonds had to undergo a complex certification procedure to confirm their origin and authenticity in order to exclude events like those described in the picture.

Public reaction

Authors who wrote the scriptmovie Blood Diamond, they thought they might offend the diamond industry (including De Beers) for portraying ugly practices in Africa with such accuracy. Subsequently, it was written that De Beers, the world's largest company with a market share of about 37%, feared that the screening of the film would cause a drop in demand and a wave of public outrage. And they even suggested that the creators of the picture put a message in the credits that all events have no real basis.

The most harsh reaction to the film "Blood Diamond" was in South Africa, where government officials were severely criticized for serious violations of human rights. Official representatives of the government of the country noted that events similar to those described in the picture took place many years ago, when the civil liberties of the population were really violated. Currently, the share of illegal diamond mining does not exceed 1% and slave labor is practically not used. The authorities invited the leading actors to visit diamond mining enterprises and see for themselves that all international laws were observed.