Blood Diamond Movie

I watched the movie Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Honsou. It is a movie about the role diamonds play in fueling conflicts, in this case the civil war in Sierra Leone. It was an emotional roller coaster to watch and I nearly walked out a few times.

I would never be good as a movie critic. I always find myself on the wrong side of public opinion when it comes to determining what constitutes a good movie. I won't give a critique of this movie either because I have no idea what the general public will think of it. I have a feeling it will be a semi-flop but I am not a good one to ask. All I could think about was what my son was thinking. Did he realize that what he was seeing is why we left Sierra Leone when he was only four?

A few things in the movie bothered me a little only because I know better having grown up there. It was filmed mainly in South Africa and Mozambique so the terrain is not quite right. Many of the accents are not quite right either but those flaws are nothing to quibble about. Most people wouldn't know the difference anyway.

The general story is true. The film was extremely graphic in showing the atrocities but it could have been even worse. I knew people who had their limbs cut off and were killed for no reason by kids and the movie showed that. But I also remember going to church with a guy who had been caught by the RUF and had his ears cut off. All he had left were scarred over stubs. I also knew someone who had his lips cut off. It doesn't stop there either but I try to forget it.

They also did a fairly good job of showing the trauma caused to innocent people who were kidnapped by the RUF and forced to join them. Some were forced to fight while others would mine, carry loads through the bush or cook for the rebels. In the movie they portrayed kids who were being rehabbed and the stars own son also has to deal with it. They can never do it justice though. It is really hard for these people to go back to their villages. They are viewed with suspicion at best and are sometimes tortured and killed at worst.

I had a friend who was killed when he returned to our village. The RUF attacked our town not long after we had left. He says the rebels forced him to fight for them and he was seen manning one of their check points at the edge of town soon after they attacked. He was taken with the rebels when they left but returned several months later. Apparently the majority of the people in our town thought he joined willingly so they brutally killed him. He wasn't the most stable person in the world so I don't know if he joined on his own or not. I just couldn't believe the brutality of the town though. In the 12 years I lived there I only remember hearing about a few murders in the entire region and they were big, shocking news stories. Before we left they were executing rebels fairly often. Most Sierra Leoneans are peaceful and happy so this was really disturbing. (The capacity of Sierra Leoneans to still laugh in spite of horrific conditions has always amazed me. It's not that they are never serious, they just have wonderful personalities as a whole.) A beautiful innocence was lost and there are thousands of people who are now unable to go home.

The movie depicts mining operations in the Kono region on the Sewa river. This same river made to within 12 miles of our town many miles down river from there. All the rivers in Sierra Leone turn into raging torrents during the rainy season though so diamonds were found in the Sewa all the way to the ocean. I worked in villages on the river and so I was familiar with the diamond mines there. Miners would regularly offer to sell me diamonds but I never bought any. I know very little about diamonds so I always claimed that the stones they were showing me were fake. We would frequently engage in good natured conversations as they tried to convince me they had the real thing.

Diamonds do more damage than fuel conflicts too. Outside of rebel zones diamonds are mined in a free-for-all manner. A lot of people give up everything to go try their luck in the mines. Most come back even worse off than when they left. The hardest hit are the young people who have traded in the opportunity for an education for the slim chance of striking it rich.

Some of the mines are extremely dangerous. While most mining is done in shallow pits sometimes they will find a vein and dig deep shafts that are not structurally sound. Due to the illegal nature of the mining activity it is often done at night. Every now and then we would hear about one of these deep mines collapsing with a lot of people in them.

I kind of wish I hadn't seen this movie. I don't think I'll sleep to well for awhile. And, oh yeah, I'll never buy another diamond again. I don't buy this "conflict free diamonds" stuff at all. There is just no way they can control it no matter what they say. There is also a line in the movie where a local is glad that they don't have oil because that will just cause more hardship. Unfortunately he is right and there are rumors that they are currently exploring.