Metal Mummy's Movie Meme

I feel very guilty I haven't taken part in this fab movie linky yet.  Especially being an ex Drama and Film Studies teacher.  But although before children I used to be able to deconstruct films in a jiffy, I am actually not a movie buff.  I also have film induced narcolepsy (self diagnosed, but a condition verfied by discovering fellow sufferers Very Bored in Catalunya and Nickie at Typecast).

This week's theme is Leonardo DiCaprio.  I like that theme alot, because I also can't remember film stars names, so Metal Mummy has made that easy for me.  And as soon as I went to look up his films to jog my memory,  Blood Diamond jumped out at me. 

Behind all those sparkly diamonds is hideous bloodshed, something I became very aware of as I struggled to find conflict free stones for my wedding ring.  This film came out in 2006, shortly after we got married, and is set in Sierra Leonne where civil war rages for control of the diamond fields. Rebels and the government battle with each other for diamonds to pay for more weapons. 

DiCaprio's character is a smuggler, who is diamond hungry and sells weapons to both sides.  I really liked the way as an actor he conveyed all the contradictions in his character.  There's a scene at a beachside bar where Di Caprio meets a journalist trying to expose the trade in conflict diamonds, he tries to justify his involvement to her, makes the complexities of the situation so clear, but it's obvious too he is falling for her.



The final events of the film are  based on an actual meeting that led to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which seeks to certify the origin of diamonds in order to curb the trade in conflict diamonds.

 Smuggling, war, love, politics, news, diamonds.  Kept me awake. Literally and politically.