Blood Diamond

Visually refined viewing that is intended to provoke that proverbial chill down your spine. Unfortunately, just showing is no longer enough these days, so no chilled spine. It needs more. The trailers were much better at it (I would even place one of them in my golden trailer fund). Even so, Zwick did a perfect job. It’s been a long time since I saw such wonderfully filmed scenery (locations, landscapes). In terms of acting, hats off to the great Hounsou, the gorgeous Jennifer Connelly and especially to DiCaprio who very pleasantly surprised me. So that’s a solid 4 stars and if Edward Zwick intends to continue in this direction, I’ll make very sure I don’t miss his pictures. (07/03/2007)

A winning combination of social drama and action/adventure. Bleak scenes of violence are insterspersed with gripping action, which is tempered by intimate dialogue – and this pattern is repeated over and over again, which unfortunately makes Blood Diamond seem drawn-out and repetitive in places. In the end, however, it is still a respectable example of first-rate Hollywood filmmaking, like almost everything else by Edward Zwick. And that is thanks to the beautiful visual aspect, the attractive setting, great actors and a lot of very powerful scenes, especially the last one. (01/21/2007)

Do not be fooled by the long exposition into an important and dangerous topic. What will follow is worth it. Edward Zwick proves that "The Last Samurai" was not just a coincidence. The harsh scenes of the ruthless R.U.F. group, Djimon Hounsou's breathtaking determination, and the uninterrupted tender love story symbolizing undying hope. Additionally, DiCaprio, as Danny Archer, is a properly angry Rambo, and the scene where he wades through muddy water in the camp amidst explosions and bullet salvos is an unexpected action thriller. Give "Blood Diamond" a chance, no matter what you think about the subject and genre. And it will hurt for Africa. (09/12/2007)

The epic production design, brilliant technical side and the suitably booming soundtrack by James Newton Howard are the indisputable pluses here. The makers achieve the almost impossible for most of the movie, successfully balancing on the edge between an adventure movie in Romancing the Stone style, while also having enough time to highlight the problems in Sierra Leone, and perhaps most of the African continent. The action scenes are intense, and the dramatic storyline has balls. What prevents Blood Diamond from getting a better score is the closing quarter hour where the hitherto well-constructed characters turn into one-dimensional cutouts. Everything ends up as expected and we even get a moral at the end for those who managed not to understand what Zwick is saying the whole time using “movie language". An ending like that might be okay for family viewing, but in a politically engaged movie this is absolutely at odds with the rest of it. And that is doubly disappointing in a movie of this quality. (01/25/2007)

Yes, Blood Diamond can be criticized for a certain sentimentality, which stands out especially during the death of one of the characters, and overall a slightly Hollywood-tinted script, which caters to an American moralistic and positive view of the world. However, it is top-notch directorial craftsmanship with plenty of quality performances, a story set in a realistic environment, and a rarely functional combination of political themes that reveals a burning issue of the present, with a quality adventure story. If a tragicomic mishmash like Rambo has almost the same rating, while the difference in quality is like that between a grain of sand and the Sahara, then I have no choice but to give Blood Diamond five stars. If the adventure and action genre were always represented by such high-quality films as this one, then I would have no problem with it. The fight scenes, whether in the jungle or especially during the siege of the capital, are among the best I have seen in the relevant genre in recent months. Overall impression: 90%. (04/08/2010)