Djimon Hounsou and Leonardo DiCaprio in 'Blood Diamond.' Everett Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment On Dec. 8, 2006, Warner Bros. unveiled Edward Zwick's drama Blood Diamond in theaters, where it would go on to gross $171 million globally. The feature, starring Djimon Hounsou and Leonardo DiCaprio, was nominated for five Oscars at the 79th Academy Awards. The Hollywood Reporter's original review is below: In the ambitious, sweeping and sometimes moving Blood Diamond, Edward Zwick aims to fuse recent history with mass-scale entertainment. That's nothing new for Hollywood, and the story of the wages of capitalism and war on the African continent - and their connection to the American consumer - is an important, ever-timely one. But while getting across the facts it wants to tell, the film seldom transcends the awkwardness of its edutainment blend. The ultra-cinematic heroics feel too large and dazzling for the material, the classic movie tropes too formulaic, and the illuminating effect of all of it is more mechanical than organic. Related Stories From the Archives 'My Darling Clementine': THR's 1946 Review From the Archives 'Casino': THR's 1995 Review But to the unlikely role of a Bogart-esque reluctant hero, Leonardo DiCaprio brings an intensity that compels even when the script falters. Far beyond the lure of a serious action-adventure yarn, his star power will help Diamond mine boxoffice gold. DiCaprio plays Danny Archer, a native of Zimbabwe, which he insists on still calling Rhodesia. An amoral existentialist whose backstory becomes clear late in the going, Danny is a former mercenary soldier. In 1999 Sierra Leone, he makes his living trading arms for diamonds and smuggling the so-called conflict diamonds out of the civil-war-torn country, his chief client being the dominant Van De Kamp company. While in jail for smuggling, he learns of a big pink diamond - a rare stone that would be worth a fortune - and determines to find it. The stone in question was discovered and hidden by Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a fisherman forced to work in the diamond fields after the rebel army of the Revolutionary United Front slaughtered or mutilated nearly everyone in his village. Out of prison and barely escaping explosive warfare in the streets of Free town, Solomon and Danny become partners in a quest to retrieve the stone. Of crucial help to them as they venture through rebel territory is Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), an American journalist and admitted crisis junkie - and a would-be pickup for Danny, until she tries to elicit his help as a source. But everyone's cutting a deal here, and eventually Danny promises that after they've gotten the diamond - which she expects him to steal from Solomon - he'll go on record with the details she needs to nail the story about Van De Kamp's complicity in crimes against the African people. Also bent on finding the stone are sadistic rebel commander Captain Poison (David Harewood, oozing evil) and the coolly calculating Colonel (Arnold Vosloo), Danny's one-time mentor as a soldier-for-hire. The outsize diamond is everyone's ticket out, a liberation as payday. But no one is as motivated as the noble and decent Solomon, for whom the rock represents a way to get back his family. In the brutal fate that has befallen Sierra Leone, the RUF has turned his 12-year-old son, Dia (the very good Ragiso Kuypers), into a brainwashed, drug-fueled child soldier, while Solomon's wife and two younger children languish in a refugee camp in Guinea. One of the most effective and harrowing sequences juxtaposes scenes of Solomon, posing as a cameraman and helping a wounded child, with images of his son learning to kill. Hitting all the expected big story beats with an abundance of incident, Blood Diamond feels long well before its midway point. For much of the first half, Charles Leavitt's screenplay struggles to fill us in: Almost every line of dialogue, whether in the mouth of a central character or a Group of Eight conferee, is a history lesson or political lecture. With her intriguingly independent reporter forced to deliver a good share of the educational material, Connelly suffers most. Leavitt's script invests far more complexity in the white characters. But despite the too-simple contrast between the mercenary Danny and the idealistic Solomon, who believes his country can again be a peaceful paradise, the film finds its emotional pulse only in second-half scenes that strip away the rest of the action to focus on these two disparate Africans - and two fine actors. Hounsou's depth surpasses the two-dimensional conception of his role, and DiCaprio taps into unexpected ferocity in a performance of sure instincts. At its best, the film is a portrait of madness - the madness of the unchecked quest for