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Blood Diamond, surviving in a hostile world.
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п»ї<title>Blood Diamond, surviving in a hostile world.</title>
What do the most precious jewels really hide? What kind of consumption are we really doing? These are some of the questions we ask ourselves after watching Blood Diamond (Edward Zwick, 2006). A film full of emotions, violence, adventure and with a critical component that will not go unnoticed.
The film is built on a true story: the Sierra Leone Civil War and diamond trafficking, which will serve as a framework for what we are about to witness. But Blood Diamond is not only about the war, but uses it to set up a new adventure story in which two characters, coming from different worlds, will become allies.
Danny Archer and Solomon Vandy team up to obtain a diamond that could change their lives, but in a very different way. Solomon sees his life crumble before the arrival of the war, RUF rebels storm into his village destroying families, including Solomon's. Solomon is recruited by the RUF to search for diamonds.
Solomon is recruited by the RUF to search for diamonds; these diamonds are used by the RUF to finance the war and acquire weapons. Solomon's family manages to flee, although his young son Dia is captured to become a child soldier. On the other hand, we meet Danny Archer, a white man who smuggles diamonds. Their paths will cross in prison; Archer hears that Vandy has found a large pink diamond, so he will try to get Solomon out of jail and set out to find the diamond.
The film, of great rawness, has tremendously violent and tragic scenes. It manages to capture the pain, the helplessness in the face of such a harsh situation and makes us participants in something that the West prefers not to look at.
As a personal recommendation, it is interesting to see the film in its original version so as not to lose the nuances of the magnificent interpretations of its two protagonists: Djimon Hounsou and Leonardo DiCaprio, not forgetting that the latter performs an exceptional change of accent that cannot be appreciated in the dubbing. Both characters represent the two faces of survival in a world where corruption, injustice, slavery and violence are the protagonists.
Blood Diamond: three faces and the same realityThe protagonist duo will be joined by an American journalist, Maddy Bowen, a young idealist who characterizes very well a good part of Western society. Sometimes we tend to think that we can change the world, that by doing our bit we can bring about small changes in society. And while this statement is not entirely inaccurate, the truth is that, when we plunge into the darkest part of humanity, this positivism tends to fade away.
In the West, we sometimes tend to forget that the world is not as easy as it has been painted, that it is not that idyllic place where we can achieve everything we set our minds to. It is true that we are not far from corruption, nor are we exempt from violence, but there are countless problems that we are not aware of and that we are participating in. In a way, the media encourage this vision, just look at the news and see the treatment given to the same tragedy depending on the place in the world where it has happened.
Probably, if the tragic event takes place in Europe, we will be moved by it and it will be given a long space in the news; however, if it happens on the other side of the world, surely, it will not be given more than five minutes and it will be treated in a more superficial way. Are we really aware of the situation beyond our borders? This is one of the questions we ask ourselves when we meet Maddy Bowen.
Maddy is the true reflection of the young western girl who believes she can change the world, she is the reflection of ideals and the power of ideals. However, these ideals will be of little use in an environment where survival is the priority. Surviving by any means necessary, escaping and fighting in a hostile world, something that Vandy and Archer are more than used to and that contrasts with Maddy's idea.
Maddy believes that if she can make a good story, she can raise awareness or at least get people involved and stop them looking the other way in the face of the dramatic situation in Sierra Leone. The problem is that good intentions are sometimes not enough. We can greatly question Archer's attitude, the fact that he enriches himself at the expense of the suffering of others, and yet we discover that this is his way to survive, that the only thing Archer wants is to be able to flee the continent.
Vandy, on the other hand, represents family values; his love for his family will move him to disobey, risking his own life to hide the precious diamond. Vandy could have handed over the diamond and continued his slavery by "keeping his head down", however, he decides to take the risk and will do anything to be reunited with his family. Despite the values embodied by these characters, despite the questionable attitudes they may embody, especially Archer, we will soon realize that the enemy is none other than power, corruption and, in a way, the consumers themselves.
What is the price of consumption? Blood Diamond goes beyond drawing good guys and bad guys, it goes beyond the characters themselves. What the film really proposes is a reflection about the world we live in, about inequalities and the very consumption in which we participate. It is the Western countries themselves who buy the jewels that come from exploitation and, with that money, finance the RUF weapons and turn children into soldiers, as happens to Dia.
At the same time, the three characters represent, in some way, this circle of interests: Maddy comes from the West, from the consumer society, from those people who, by buying the diamonds, finance the weapons; Archer is in charge of acting as an intermediary between both continents, he is in charge of selling the diamonds; and, finally, Solomon belongs to the world of slavery, to those who must find the diamonds that will later be sold and acquired by some wealthy Westerner.
Thus, what we are shown is how these characters act according to their reality, their context. Each one of them faces his individual situation in the way he sees fit. When their paths cross, they will embark on a path of adventure, survival and dramatic situations. A path against the tide, a David versus Goliath struggle in which the precious diamond will be the guiding thread and, although it may seem contradictory, the path to freedom.
After watching Blood Diamond, the echo we are left with are countless doubts about our own role as consumers who are little or not at all responsible. Are we really aware of what we consume? Do we know if our most precious objects are not stained with blood? And we are no longer talking about precious jewels, such as diamonds, but about simple, everyday objects such as clothing, food or technology.
Is it fair to pay an exorbitant price for an object? Are we victims of the time and place in which we were born? Is it in our power to change things? Diamante de sangre opens the debate, it shows before us a crude and violent reality, it traps us among perfectly drawn characters, with different lives and dreams, but with a single goal: to survive in a hostile world.
"Who do you think buys the stones I take out? American girls who want a dream wedding and a stone like the ones in the ads of their politically correct magazines."
-Blood Diamond
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