🎬 Blood Diamond (2006) _ Movie Recap

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00:00Blood Diamond, 2006

00:06Set against the backdrop of the Sierra Leone Civil War in 1999, the movie depicts a nation

00:12in turmoil as government soldiers clash with rebel forces. The narrative highlights the

00:17grim realities of the conflict, such as the rebels' brutal practice of amputating people's

00:22hands to obstruct their participation in upcoming elections. The story unfolds with the abduction

00:28of Solomon Vandy, played by Jimen Hunsu, a men fisherman, by the Revolutionary United Front,

00:35or UF, rebels during their invasion of the small Sierra Leonean village of Shinche.

00:40Separated from his family, Solomon becomes an enslaved laborer in the diamond fields under

00:45the command of Captain Poison, portrayed by David Harewood. Meanwhile, Solomon's son Dya is forcibly

00:52recruited into the rebel forces, undergoing brainwashing that transforms him into a remorseless

00:57killer. The RUF exploits the diamonds from the fields to finance their war, frequently trading

01:03them directly for weapons. While toiling as a forced laborer in the RUF diamond fields, Solomon

01:09stumbles upon a sizable diamond with a rare pink hue. Shortly before government troops launch an

01:14assault, Captain Poison notices Solomon concealing the precious stone. However, in the midst of the

01:20attack, Captain Poison is injured, preventing him from obtaining the diamond. Both he and Solomon are

01:26subsequently captured and taken to prison in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. Danny Archer,

01:33Leonardo DiCaprio, an Anglo ex-mercenary from Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, trades arms for diamonds

01:39with an RUF commander. He is imprisoned after being caught smuggling the diamonds into neighboring

01:44Liberia, and the diamonds are confiscated. He had been transporting the diamonds to a South African

01:50mercenary named Colonel Kutzee, Arnold Voslo, who was in turn employed by South African Diamond Company

01:56executive Van de Kapp, Marius Weyers, and his deputy Simmons, Michael Sheen. Kutzee is Archer's former

02:03commander in 32 Battalion, the most decorated unit of the South African border war, made up of Angolan

02:10and Rhodesian soldiers and white South African officers. Archer is desperate for a way to repay Colonel Kutzee

02:17for the diamonds taken from him when he was arrested and thrown in jail, in the same prison as the

02:22fishermen. While in prison, he overhears Captain Poison ranting to Solomon about the discovery of

02:27the large diamond and decides to hunt down the stone. He arranges for Solomon's release from prison

02:33and offers to help him find his family in exchange for the diamond. Archer and Solomon find their way to

02:39Maddie Bowen, Jennifer Connelly, an American journalist who helps Solomon track down his family.

02:44Bowen soon learns that Archer is using Solomon to find his diamond and will eventually steal it for himself

02:51to leave Africa forever. Bowen, a humanitarian, refuses to help Archer unless he can tell her about

02:57the diamond market to stop the flow of blood diamonds out of Africa, cutting off funding for civil war and

03:03ending a mass revolution. Archer gives Bowen the information that she wants and gets access to use the

03:08press convoy to travel to Kono to find the diamond. The convoy is attacked and Archer, Solomon and Bowen

03:15escape and find their way to the South African mercenary force under Colonel Kutzee. There they

03:20learn of the attack force preparing to retake Sierra Leone, a reference to the actual 1995 hiring of South

03:27African security firm Executive Outcomes by the provisional government of Sierra Leone. The two men leave the camp

03:34on foot while Bowen boards a plane carrying foreigners out of the conflict zone. After an arduous overnight

03:40trek, the men reach the mining camp in a river valley, still under RUF control, where Solomon

03:45discovered and buried the large diamond. Here, Solomon is painfully reunited with his son Dia, who refuses to

03:52acknowledge him because he has been brainwashed by the rebels. Solomon is also reunited with Captain Poison,

03:58who orders him to find the diamond, but the South African mercenary force, also after the diamond,

04:05dispatches the RUF rebels in a massive airstrike which kills many of the RUF rebels and some of the

04:11miners. Amidst the Choas, Solomon suffers from temporary insanity and kills poison with a shovel.

04:17Through a deal with Archer, Colonel Kutzee forces Solomon to retrieve the stone. In a desperate battle,

04:23Archer kills Kutzee and the other two soldiers with him after realizing that they would have killed

04:28both Archer and Solomon upon locating the diamond. At this point, Dia holds Archer and Solomon at

04:34gunpoint with a pistol, but Solomon manages to convince him to side with them. As Archer overturns

04:40a body to take equipment, he realizes he has been shot, but keeps this to himself. Having arranged in

04:46advance for a plane to pick him up, he radios to the pilot, Benjamin Kapanay Basil Wallace, who demands

04:53that Archer dump Solomon in diameter slowly and painfully the group makes its way from the

04:58valley towards an airstrip atop a nearby ridge. Archer collapses, unable to climb, and Solomon

05:04carries him a little ways before Archer has him put him down. He tells Solomon to take Dia home,

05:10knowing that he is dying, and gives them the diamond. Archer holds off the soldiers chasing

05:14them while Solomon and Dia flee, and then makes a final phone call to Bowen, asking her to help Solomon

05:20as a last favor before looking out over the beautiful landscape of Africa once more and dying peacefully.

05:26With the help of Bowen, Solomon trades the diamond to Simmons for a large sum of money in the

05:31reunification of his family, making the exchange as Solomon's wife and children deplane from a

05:37Learjet at a London airport. Bowen, who secretly photographs the deal, later publishes a magazine

05:43piece exposing the trade in conflict, or blood, diamonds. The film ends with Solomon smiling at the

05:50photograph Maddie took of Archer earlier, now published in her magazine along with the complete story of their

05:55journey, before addressing a conference on blood diamonds in Kimberley, South Africa, describing

06:01his experiences. This refers to an actual meeting that took place in Kimberley in 2000 and led to

06:08the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which seeks to certify the origin of diamonds in order to

06:13curb the trade in conflict diamonds. At the encampment, Archer, seeing they are heavily outnumbered,

06:20calls Cutsy's army via satellite phone to request an airstrike. Vandy, desperate to find his son,

06:26sneaks into the encampment and locates Dia. Due to Dia's brainwashing, he refuses to acknowledge his

06:32father. Vandy is captured but escapes when Cutsy's army arrives. Vandy finds and kills Captain Poison as

06:39the mercenaries overwhelm the UF defenders. Cutsy takes Dia hostage and forces Vandy to produce the diamond,

06:46but Archer kills Cutsy after realizing the colonel will eventually kill them both. Dia briefly holds

06:52the pair at gunpoint, but Vandy is able to talk him down by reminding him of who he was. Pursued by

06:58vengeful mercenaries, Archer is mortally wounded. He entrusts the stone to Vandy, telling him to take it for

07:04his family. Vandy and his son rendezvous with Archer's pilot, who flies them to safety while Archer makes a

07:11final phone call to Bowen, in Cape Town. Archer asks Bowen to assist Vandy and his family, and gives

07:17permission for Maddie to finish her article before dying. Vandy and Bowen meet in London, where they

07:23execute an undercover operation to expose the Van de Kapp operation's dirty dealings. Vandy exchanges

07:30the pink diamond for two million pounds and a reunion with his entire family. Bowen publishes her

07:35exposé on the diamond trade and Van de Kapp's criminal actions. Later, Vandy appears as a guest speaker

07:42at a conference on blood diamonds in Kimberley, where he is met with a standing ovation.

🎬 Blood Diamond (2006) _ Movie Recap

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