© weeklymonday

Diamond is one of the most priceless jewels in the world and everyone wants to have one, however tiny it may be. But no one knows about the hidden story of diamond. The movie Blood Diamond shows this hidden story. Before going into the movie, you need to know what the blood diamond is. The blood diamond means that diamonds are mined in war zones and sold to finance conflicts, and thereby profit warlords and diamond companies across the world.

Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a South African mercenary and a diamond smuggler. Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) is a Mende fisherman, a loving husband, and a father of three children. The diamond mining industries in South Africa and Sierra Leone are an essential business of various rebel organizations because that is the main monetary source to fight against their own governments.

The rebels raid and destroy Solomon’s home town and capture him and later his family, and take him to a forced-labor camp to mine for diamonds. Solomon finds a huge rare pink diamond while mining and buried it secretly. After that, when the government then raids the mine, he is captured and jailed. It’s here where Danny Archer first hears about the diamond and finds Solomon to figure out the diamond’s whereabouts. Danny makes a promise that he will get back Solomon’s family and they start their journey to take back the pink diamond. During the journey, Danny meets Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), an American journalist looking for a story that can help end the bloodshed and change the world. Together these three set off on an adventure to recover the diamond and save their own lives.

What happens to them next? Do they succeed their adventure and they all get what they want? Afterward, Vandy moves to London and has a chance to inform the world about his story and the brutal situation related with the blood diamond. But, unfortunately, Archer is fatally wounded while he rescued Vandy’s family.

The movie seems to be quite heavy because it illustrates very delicate international problems. However, the message that they want to deliver is very clear. Do not buy conflict diamonds and don’t expect too much from the blatant end title card requests that consumers make sure they don’t buy blood diamonds.

Like the movie hopes, thanks to international efforts and corporation, diamonds are no longer mined to fund wars. But the scandal has not gone away. Now greed has created a new type of blood diamond in one African country, stained by the blood of those tortured and murdered. The worst thing is that there is nothing to guarantee that miners are free from violence in its most chilling forms, and the private security guards and the soldiers, who are employed by companies and the government, keep control of the miners hoping to make their fortune sifting through the gravel in the river beds for the precious gems.

Maybe, the movie wants to say that there are still complicated problems in Africa and we need to pay more attention to solve this tragedy and give freedom to the miners who are suffering by rebels.