Blood Diamond

BLOOD DIAMOND is equal parts earnest and muddled. While it does good work by bringing the lingering problem of African conflict diamonds back into the news, the movie itself is ungainly and retro, using white characters to illuminate the problem -- while also simplifying it. The film shows plenty of the effects of the diamond-and-arms traffic: battles and massacres involving a range of forces, from local militias to the Revolutionary United Front to the national military. The violence is horrific, and the effects are clearly devastating, but the focus on Danny's ethical education detracts from what seem like more urgent troubles (say, a million refugees).

The film does suggest that it understands its limits in several references to the racism that allows such systems of exploitation to persist and even thrive. Danny cajoles Solomon: "I know people, white people. Without me, you're just another black man in Africa, all right?" This is partly true, but the film makes this black man a figure for righteous vengeance, and his immediate targets are other black men in Africa, with large guns, bloody machetes, and scarred faces. White, designer-suited Europeans in Antwerp and London do appear as beneficiaries of the bloodshed, but they don't suffer the same sorts of visceral, audience-moving consequences as the villainous Africans.