The soil is red from the blood that has been spilled on this country

"The soil is red from the blood that has been spilled on this country" - Colonel Coetzee, 'Blood Diamond'.

"Blood Diamond" (2006)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly, Arnold Vosloo, Michael Sheen
Directed by: Edward Zwick
Produced by: Len Amato, Benjamin Waisbren, Kevin De La Noy

"Blood diamond (also called a converted diamond, conflict diamond, hot diamond or a war diamond) refers to a diamond mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, invading army's war efforts, or a warlord's activity, usually in Africa." - Wikipedia.org

The movie 'Blood Diamond', resolving about the blood diamond mining, smuggling and exporting in Sierra Leone during the civil war in 1999 depicts the truth, or a version of truth that people who actually buy the diamond doesn't seem to know. The movie with it's gory and shocking blood spilling, intense war action, explanations of history and situations and brief romance of Danny Archer (Dicaprio) and Maddy Bowen (Connelly), is a good movie made of the truth that was seen in Africa during the nineties civil war.

The story starts with Solomon Vandy (Housou) who is a fisherman living with his wife and three children in an outskirt village; and he wants his son, Dia, to learn english to be able to go to college. One day the village is attacked by the rebel forces which kills or captures almost everyone in the village. Any strong man in the village was taken to a diamond mining field, where Solomon ends up next and his family escapes.

While mining in a shallow river Soloman finds himself a very rare and large pink diamond. When he was trying to hide it the army forces attack the mining facility and he's taken to jail. While in jail one of the rebel officers who had seen Soloman trying hide the diamond announces to everyone in jail that Soloman has hidden the blood diamond.

And this is heard by Danny Archer (DiCaprio) who was caught when trying to smuggle diamonds across to Liberia. When he hears this he bails out Solomon and gets out too. Soloman finds a job and Archer tries to settle his muck up of the last set of diamonds when he meets Bowen, an american journalist trying to find the truth of diamond industry and Van de Kaap company which deals heavily in diamonds. Archer refuses to be a source for her and they part company.

Archer then finds Soloman and tries to convince him to tell him where he hid the diamond, during that conversation the army and rebels have a showdown and they escape together with a pact that Soloman will tell where the diamond is if Archer helps him find his missing family.

After escaping Archer tries to get Bowen's help to find Soloman's family. Bowen helps him in exchange for information on Van de Caap and Archer's name as a source. After Soloman sees his family in a refugee camp in Guinea he tells Archer where he hid the diamond and the three of them decide to go to Colonel Coetzee, the man who had taken in Archer and introduced him to diamond smuggling.

During their way to Colonel, along with some other journalists they get attacked by more rebels and are forced to flee. Also during this time we get what Dia is up to with the rebel forces; with drugs, alcohol, violence and brainwashing Dia doesn't stand a chance. Soloman, Archer and Bowen end up in a house that aids children taken from the rebels and with the help of the teacher they end up going to the mercenary forces led by Colonel.

There Bowen gets information from Archer and their romance intensifies but Bowen ends up leaving. Archer learns that Colonel plans to attack Sierra Leone to take back control. This was actually true; it refers to the 1995 hiring of South African security firm 'Executive Outcomes' by the government of Sierra Leone.

Archer decides to get the diamond on his own and with Soloman, they escape. They trek their way to the mine Soloman worked in. They reach the mine and find out that it's under rebel force control. Soloman finds his son and Archer attacks the rebel oss but Colonel and his forces jump in too. After a three-way fighting Soloman finds the diamond but Archer gets shot. After another two different fights where Soloman convinces his son to regain in innocence and Archer kills the Colonel. After contacting his pilot Archer manages to get them a ride.

But Archer is unable to make it to the helicopter due to his wound and tells Soloman and Dia to go and hands Soloman the diamond back. After the helicopter leaves Archer calls Bowen and asks a last favor to help Soloman and dies. Soloman travels to London where he sells the diamond with Bowen's help and reunites with his family. Bowen writes her article with Archer's information and Soloman describes his experience in Kimberly, South Africa. This speech is referred to a real situation where the 'Kimberley Process Certification Scheme' was made; which seeks to certify the origin of diamonds in order to curb the trade in blood diamonds.

The movie is compelling and heartfelt but I find some situations and connections to be very cliche and too 'movie-like' to be only coincidence. But after I watched this movie I got to know about the diamond trade. DiCaprio's acting as a me-first mercenary is very good and Hounsou as a father-first is very convincing too. Connelly doesn't appear much in the movie but her steadfast approach as a journalist out to get her sources help out both Archer and Solomon; Colonel (Vosloo) acts as the best evil man.