Blood Diamond DVD: Review By Brian Gallagher

If Leonardo DiCaprio keeps up this torrid pace, I doubt he'll have to worry about those Oscar snubs anymore like he did earlier in his career. He picked up his third Oscar nom for his riveting performance as Danny Archer here in Blood Diamond, although some were surprised he wasn't rewarded for his turn in Best Picture winner The Departed. To be honest though, it really didn't matter, because both performances were so damn good it was almost like you had to flip a coin to decide which flick to give him the nod for. But Blood Diamond is no one-man show by any means and this powerful movie shines from every angle in moviemaking.

While it's hard to ignore DiCaprio's marvelous turn as the mercenary-turned-diamond-smuggler Danny Archer, it's even harder to ignore Djimon Hounsou, an incredible actor for far longer than he's given credit for, who also picked up an Oscar nomination here for his supporting turn as Solomon Vandy, a lowly fisherman who finds a monstrous diamond while held in captive by rebel forces in Sierra Leone. When Archer learns of Vandy's find, the two become reluctant partners along with a cunning journalist, Maddy (Jennifer Connelly). Each wants something from the other, with Archer wanting the diamond, Vandy wanting to find his displaced family and Maddy wants to write about the corrupt business of conflict diamonds, a.k.a. blood diamonds.

While the flick does suffer just a smidge from an excessive runtime, you barely notice it because everyone is just simply at the top of their game. Even Connelly, who I haven't been a fan of in the past, turns in a solid performance as Maddy, although far overshadowed by the enormous talents of DiCaprio and Hounsou. You rarely see all three together at the same time, and it's for the best, for Connelly anyway. But as good as the folks in front of the camera are, the ones behind it might be even better.

Edward Zwick is almost like the poor man's Scorcese. He consistently turns out solid flicks, most of them following suit with Scorcese's long-winded nature, but his movies just seem to be missing a certain something that prevents Zwick from being an A-lister. That all might change with Blood Diamond, because this could be his best work yet. While he directs from Charles Leavitt's lengthy script, Zwick directs with a very deft touch, like a symphony conductor, knowing exactly when to speed it up and exactly when to slow it down. I was actually quite surprised when his work wasn't recognized by the Academy this year. If Zwick can keep lining up powerful stories like this, with top-notch talent like this, he could be a household name before you know it.

Blood Diamond is a marvelous movie, chocked with just the right mix of action, real-life political overtones and drama. It's a powerful movie with tons of heart and one that shouldn't be missed... espeically if you're going to pop the question.

This two-disc set is a little light on the features, especially for having a whole disc devoted to them. First up is Blood on the Stone, and it's really damn weird. It's a doc*mentary done by a journalist named Sorious Samura from the Sierra Leone, who was affected personally by the real war, losing his own brother. This part isn't that weird, but the weird part is how they made this whole thing. It looks and sounds like a cheap PBS video, with very odd choices of music and corny graphics. We do get some decent facts here, but they present this whole thing in such an odd way that a lot of the decent facts get lost in the awkward way they made this featurette. It's 49 minutes long, and while we get some great stuff here on the current diamond laws, the Kimberly Process, and how it doesn't seem to be working, the whole thing drags and drags. I just wish they could've found a better way to present these facts than this way.

Next up we have Becoming Archer, where Leonardo DiCaprio discusses his own take on the subject matter of the movie, and how he got into his character. We see how totally immersed he gets into his character of Danny Archer, the things he had to learn to get there and it just goes to show why he's one of the most talented actors working today.

Next up is Journalism on the Front Line where Jennier Connelly discusses her real-life counterparts, women journalists with the war beat. We also hear from director Edward Zwick, producer Marshall Herzkovitz and Leonardo DiCaprio in this little 5-minute featurette. This isn't bad, but it could've gone a little deeper.

Inside the Siege of Freetown is a featurette about one of the most powerful segments of the film, the portrayal of the rebels attacking Sierra Leone's capital city of Freetown, which took place in real life in January of 1999. This 10-minute featurette goes through this amazing sequence and how realistic they wanted it to be. We hear from Sorious Samura a few times here too, as he was actually there and can atest to the accuracy of these scenes. It's really quite something to see how much goes into a big bang-up sequence like that with gunfire and pyro and everything. A very nice special feature.

Lastly we get Nas' music video Shine On. It's a slick video from Nas, who I've always thought was a great rapper. Like all of the other movie tie-in music videos, we see a lot of footage from the movie spliced in throughout the video.

All in all, some decent stuff here, but still, for a 2-disc special edition, there isn't as much as you'd think.

This lushly-shot movie is presented in the widescreen format, enhanced for widescreen 16x9 televisions.

You can hear the massive quantities of gunfire and everything else wonderfully in the Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound format.

Aside from the stupid slip cover sleeve that is exactly the same as the DVD artwork, it's a damn good package. The whole front cover gives us a nicely-spliced shot of the three principals here, DiCaprio, Hounsou and Connelly. with a big title card in the middle and an Oscar proclamation below that, telling us it was up for 5 Oscars, all set against a black backdrop. The back gives us a praising critic's quote, a nice sysnopsis, some random production shots and a special features box all done nicely in a modular layout. Below all that is the billing block (I finally found out the term for that, where it shows all the credits of the movie) and tech specs.

Blood Diamond is a must-see for many reasons. You should see it for the actors, and if you aren't aware of him yet, especially to take notice of Djimon Hounsou. You should see it for the marvelous direction from the almost-famous Edward Zwick. You should see it for the incredible fictional story that mirrors the real-life terrors of the region at that time. You should see it because, as a total complete package, movies really don't get a whole lot better than this.