Blood Diamond 5th Period

The movie I watched was “Blood Diamond”. The movie takes place in the African country of Sierra Leone; and has two main characters, one being Solomon, a fisherman, and the other Danny Archer, a diamond smuggler and also an ex-mercenary. Solomon’s village is invaded by the RUF, causing him to be separated from his family, and they also kidnap his son, Dia and turn him into a child soldier. Solomon is enslaved into a diamond field (the RUF use the diamonds to fund the war). While working at the fields, Solomon finds a large diamond of pink coloring, a captain sees him hide it and almost kills him, but the field is raided by government forces, and they are both taken to a prison in Freetown. Danny is caught smuggling diamonds into Liberia, and he is sent to the prison in Freetown also.

While in prison, Danny hears the captain and Solomon talking about the large diamond, it intrigues Danny so he decides to hunt it. Danny is released and later arranges for Solomon to be released from prison. He strikes a deal with Solomon: help him find the diamond, and he will help find his family. In the end, Solomon saves Dia, but Danny dies. Solomon sells the diamond to Danny’s ex-employers for a large amount of money, and they also give him his family back.

The movie touches on several elements of World History that we have learned in class. The elements include African rebels, child soldiers, and blood diamonds. The film takes place during the last year of the Sierra Leone Civil War in 1999. The movie helped me understand how bad African countries can be torn apart during a Civil war and also showed me the horrors of war. The movie also gave me more knowledge about blood diamonds, which are diamonds mined in war zones to fund rebels. The fact that African rebels and diamond companies across the world profit off of these diamonds anger me. After anyone with any morals watches the film, they would think twice before purchasing diamond jewelry.

I enjoyed watching this movie. The movie helped me appreciate my safe life in America. The makers of the movie did a great job in showing how corrupt diamond companies are and in showing the horrors of African civil wars. The movie is very educational to anyone who is willing to watch it. I actually thought it was a good movie too, and I would recommend it to anyone willing to learn more about African civil wars and blood diamonds.