Watch Blood Diamond Online
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 |
Watch Blood Diamond Online.
Movie Title: Blood Diamond Blood Diamond is available for streaming or downloading. |
MOVIE: Edward Zwick’s films always strike a good chord with me because of their incredible emotional impact. The Last Samurai left such a grand impact on me that I was in tears at its incredible and emotional climax. The Blood Diamond does the same thing by establishing strong central characters with a clear objective that makes the film gripping and tense. The story revolves around Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) a local fisherman whose village is raided by local militia who are at civil war over the control over the diamond fields. These events took place in the late 90’s and it serves as the backdrop of the film. Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a Rhodesian smuggler who works for a corporate diamond company in London he also works as a mercenary. He smuggles diamonds to the corporations so that they can remove them off of the market thus keeping supply low and demand high, that way they spike the prices. After Vendi is removed from his village and his family separated, he is put to work in the diamond fields where he comes across a pink diamond so rare that it could change the fate of not only his life but a nation’s. Vandy is able to escape his imprisonment by the rebels but is put in prison by the police, and in prison he meets Danny Archer who now wants to set his sights on the hidden diamond. When Archer meets Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), an American journalist, she believes that his story holds the key to revealing the truth behind the diamond corporations. When Vandy’s son is recruited by the rebels he sets out on a quest to find his son while Archer wants the diamond so that he can leave Africa and start his troubled life over. Arnold Vosloo plays a general who is also after the diamond. So we have four people after one small stone for four different reasons.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Blood Diamond! Click Here
The film has many sides to it. At times it’s a dark look into the social and economical conflicts of Africa, sometimes it becomes a burning commentary on the nature of man, but overall this film is an intimate story of three characters placed within the setting. The main objective of the film is to tell the story of the characters where as in films like Tears Of The Sun or Black Hawk Down it’s more about sending a central message. I’m not saying the latter films are bad, I enjoyed Tears Of The Suns and Black Hawk Down immensely. I’m also not saying that Blood Diamond is not trying to send a central message either. It’s just that Blood Diamond really tries to tell a story, just like Zwick did with The Last Samurai. While the film portrayed a civil struggle in Japan it was more focused on Tom Cruise’s and Ken Watanabe’s characters so that when tragedy struck it had a strong emotional impact on the audience. Blood Diamond is not only emotional but it’s incredibly tense and thrilling. There is lots of action in the film and the final air raid was executed perfectly. The story is solid and the film is an immense accomplishment. The reason why I knocked off half a star from my final rating was that I had two minor problems with the movie. There were places where a few tweaks could have heightened the emotional impact of the film and have kept the pace of the film more consistent. However, it is whithout a doubt that the film was superbly edited. The pace and structure were very consistant and strong. I was pleased by the script, Charles Leavitt did a fine job with the screenplay even though he has taken a long break from writing since his last effort with K-Pax. The second thing that bothered me was that once the movie ends and the credits start to roll we are hit with this hardcore rap song. I was absolutely shocked and disapointed with the decision to use rap in the end credits, it ruined the lasting effect of the film within a split second.
The film also displays some incredible artistic efforts. The cinematography is absolutely stunning. There is a very good chance that Eduardo Serra should be one of the directors of photography nominated this year at the Oscars. Some of the shots were truly breathtaking and of course you have to give credit to beautiful landscapes of Africa. The film’s score was composed by James Newton Howard who relied heavily on African vocals for the amazing score. I have to mention here that Hans Zimmer is the pioneer of incorporating native sounds into a film’s score based on location. Zimmer made African vocals his speciality with films like A World Apart, The Power Of One, The Lion King, and Tears Of The Sun. You have to acknowledge the Zimmer style in the score, but James Newton Howard makes it completely his own and delivers an amazing score. There were scenes where I wished the score was more prominent, but overall I was very happy with the musical efforts. All of the artistic efforts put together with the story make Blood Diamond what it is.
Buy,Download, Or Stream Blood Diamond! Click Here
ACTING: Does Leonardo DiCaprio give his best performance yet? In my opinion I really think so. He was amazing in the film and created a perfectly accessible character that we cared for. Many people are criticizing his accent when in fact he is using an extremely authentic Rhodesian accent. People assume that since he is white and an African he must be South African. That’s not the case here, people. DiCaprio does an amazing job with the role. Djimon Hounsou is also equally amazing in the film. There are a few intimate scenes with his son that will bring you to tears. He plays an uneducated fisherman with his only interests in his family, but it is his character that shows the good of mankind in the middle of this mess. Jennifer Connelly is a great actress and she portrays a journalist just as a journalist would act. She uses her wits and looks to get the story, but her priorities are not to make headlines but rather to help change the world for the better. Arnold Vosloo has a small role in the film, but I like him and think he’s an underrated actor. People will recognize him from The Mummy films and his guest role on the show 24. The acting in this film is superb, the characters all carry the film and make it something to remember.
BOTTOM LINE: Blood Diamond is gripping, thrilling and emotional. I shed some tears when I saw The Last Samurai and I indeed shed some tears when I saw Blood Diamond. It’s an action film with so much substance, it really pulls you in as an audience member. The few structural problems and the rap song at the end credits are not enough for me not to highly recomend this film.
Greed is the dark heart of “Blood Diamond,” director Edward Zwick’s (”The Last Samurai”) uncompromising look into the underground trafficking of illegally-traded gems in sub-Saharan Africa. Greed of corrupt men for power, greed of an amoral mercenary willing to sacrifice anything for a chance to escape Africa, greed of Western businessmen who seek to artificially control the diamond market, and the greed of a simple man for his family’s return. This movie powerfully demonstrates the valuelessness of a human life to those persons obsessed with blood diamond collection in war-ravaged Sierra Leone.
Djimon Hounsou plays Solomon Vandy, a simple fisherman and father of two who witnesses his idyllic existence crumble before his eyes. Rebels seeking new recruits, slaves, and random carnage swarm into his village. They select his adolescent son and other young men as future cadets in their guerilla army–following suitable brainwashing and manipulation techniques–before then getting down to the real business of slave collection. Seemingly devoid of any mental workings besides casual sadism, these bandits top-off their kidnapping and slave-taking exercise with the mutilation and execution of men deemed too troublesome for them to bother with. Vandy is rescued from dismemberment at the last minute when the rebels recognize his strength, seeing it as an asset they can utilize in their constant search for capital: the blood diamond pits. Condemned to toiling underneath the blazing sun with nary a chance of reaping any benefit (besides possible continued survival) for his efforts, Vandy happens to discover an egg-sized blood diamond hidden in the streambed. Hiding it underneath his foot, he buries it when the rebel encampment is attacked by government troops. The only witness to his “theft” is the wounded slave captain–now captured, along with Vandy, by government forces–who swears that the former fisherman will soon be begging to reveal the diamond’s whereabouts.
Parallel to Djimon’s character’s storyline is the tale of Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), an opportunistic solider of fortune caught within a dichotomy of conflicting motivation. He desires escape from Africa at any cost, yet secretly knows that his blood will someday mix with the earth of his homeland. Perhaps it is this realization that he is doomed which propels Archer forward: in every action and every word, he seems to be daring destiny to obliterate him. Taken in and trained from a young age by Colonel Coetzee (Arnold Vosloo), Archer is easily the most dangerous entity alive on the continent: ruthless, misanthropic, callous, manipulative, and incredibly lethal with bullet and blade. After a close-call haggling with rebel leaders over fair prices for blood diamonds, Archer is arrested for smuggling while crossing the Sierra Leone border. It is here that he intercepts the distraught Vandy and begins weaving a plan to save himself from the war-torn country: by dangling the freedom of the fisherman’s family as bait to cajole Vandy into revealing the gigantic diamond’s location. Solomon, though a simple man, is not so easily fooled. He eventually agrees to help Archer–but only if the mercenary agrees to help locate his family and also permit Solomon to be his travel companion.
There is barely time for indrawn breath during the watching of this movie. Action sequences are furious, brutal, and frequent. The pace of the movie is frenetic. The score is perfect throughout. The “education” of Vandy’s son by the rebels is heart-wrenching. Solomon’s overarching belief that fatherhood trumps all initially feels naïve, but is eventually revealed to be the singularly most powerful force in the entire movie. Danny’s character–the realist mercenary who seems most capable of surviving, when compared to Vandy–shows the most evolution, shedding layers of the personality onion until an actual human appears. He is moved to reveal an element of his past to the beautiful American reporter (Jennifer Connelly), whose persistence and mutual survivorship cements a bond they both were too proud to admit from their first meeting. Archer and Vandy relationship morphs into something beautiful when a sacrifice is needed, prompting Solomon to reverse that remarkably chauvinistic statement made by Rudyard Kipling over one hundred years ago: the “white man’s burden.”
This is hands-down Djimon’s most impressive performance: I have never seen him better represent a character. In fact, he blurs the line between character and actor, totally suspending my disbelief to the point where I “knew” him only as Vandy. I have been told by an acquaintance–currently living in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia)–that DiCaprio’s accent is spot-on. In addition, he was utterly believable as heartless mercenary, and his later transformation was also quite convincing. The action sequences were, as mentioned, jaw-dropping in their intensity, but never felt gratuitous or over-the-top.
Easily one of my five favorite movies of 2006–miss it, and you risk missing some of the finest cinematographic wizardry and directorial finesse of cinema from the last year, period.
homes for sale nc | nc real estate | durham 27703 nc homes for sale
DVD to converter | DVD to mpg | dvd to psp
homes for sale nc | nc real estate | durham 27703 nc homes for sale