So we meet Solomon Vandy, a simple African fisherman living the good life with his wife, 2 daughters and son. Then all of a sudden the R.U.F (Revolutionary United Front) invades his village, killing many and he ends up separated from his family. He is then taken to a diamond mining camp in which he spends his day sifting through muddy water for diamonds. One day he finds a huge pink diamond and goes amd buries it. The commander of that camp knows about the diamond though, only before the camp is attacked by the government. Solomon is taken to prison along with the commander who goes on and on about the diamond. This intrigues fellow prisoner Danny Archer (Leonardo Dicaprio). He's in prison because he was trying to smuggle diamonds across the border to Liberia. He gets bailed out, and then bails out Solomon because he wants that diamond real bad.
Danny also befriends a pretty journalist (Jennifer Connelly ) who wants to do a story about the diamond smuggling.
Before Solomon can reunite with his family, they are once again attacked by the rebels and the son Dia is taken and turned into a child soldier. A lot of the scenes with the child soldiers was very sobering, especially when you realize that its a real issue, still going on today.
The rebels end up taking Free Town over during the night, and Danny and Solomon barely escape alive. Due to his need to protect and reunite with his family, Solomon is forced into a partnership with Danny to get him that diamond. They find themselves in the cross fires between the rebels and government quite often. They eventually need the help of Maddie the journalist to find Solomon's family, as he has exhausted all options he can think of. However she will only help them if Danny agrees to give her reliable information about the diamond smuggling for her article. He reluctantly agrees and tells her all he knows. They then go to another refugee camp and find Solomon's family, minus Dia.
Now Solomon is on a hunt to find Dia, to find out what has happened to him. After lots of near deaths, he and Danny finally make it back to the mining camp. Dia is there!! Impatient on waiting for Danny's army strike to come in, Solomon goes down to the camp to look for him himself. He finds him, only to be faced with the shocking realization that his son has been brainwashed in a way, and hardly remembers him. The Commander of the camp recognizes him and demands the diamond. All of a sudden the air strike comes and the camp is heavily attacked. This gives Solomon the perfect opportunity to act out his revenge on the Commander and protect his son.
With a few more complications, Danny and Solomon and Dia (who finally starts to come over to the good side again) get the diamond and head to an air stripe to be taken out of there so they can sell the diamond. During the process though, Danny was shot and as much as he tries to make it, he can't. Solomon then meets up with Maddie, who helps him set up the meetings he needs in order to trade the diamond to the right people in which she is writing an article about. He gets his family back as well as lots of money, and his story helps in governing laws regarding conflict diamonds.
Danny was such a multidimensional character. I kept flip flopping between hating him and then liking him again. He and Maddie had a true connection. Eventually his good side won out as well.
This was an amazing story and I'm really glad that I was finally able to see it. It is however pretty violent. Thankfully my love for The Walking Dead has taught me when violent things are about to happen, and I am able to cover my eyes just in time. It's also just very jarring as I said earlier in seeing the scenes with the child soldiers and the brutality of the R.U.F.
Oh, and we can't forget Leo's awesome South African accent. His accent was great, especially when he would speak in a specific dialect/slang that to us would sound like lots of mumbles. The slang in this movie was fun to catch on to as well. Magic means cool, brew means brother/friend/man. After the movie was over, my mind was using this accent.
Andrew's Closing Thought: Leo
Up Next: Book of Eli
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