Blood Diamond

[fabrisse]

Go see Blood Diamond. It has some nasty violence and missed a couple of good stopping places (a common flaw in many of the movies I've seen this year), but the movie is good and mostly honest about conflict diamonds.

Djimon Hounsou gives an excellent performance, and Leonardo DiCaprio has really come into his own as an actor recently. I've always thought he was good, but not quite ripe, if that makes any sense. He's ripe now. He give a terrific performance here and from the South Africans I've known gets the accent right to boot.

Blood Diamond has the longest legal verbiage that I've seen in a credits sequence. De Beers has a long arm.

So, I'm throwing this open to the floor: Diamonds. Why or why not buy them.

I have a pair of diamond earrings that my folks gave me. But my life would be just as rich (or just as empty depending on the mood) without them. As nice as they are, I prefer aquamarines and amethysts which I think have better mining practices. Hmmm. I'm not sure. Must research.

The pro-diamond propaganda's been around a long time. I know my step-grandmother refused to believe my parents were engaged because my father didn't give my mother a diamond ring. Back in the day, an engagement diamond was supposed to represent three months salary so that it could be sold later and used as a down payment for the house. Now, men are expected to fork out the three months salary and the couple still have to save for their downpayment.

I loathe the "right-hand ring" advertisements that are out. The three stone necklace and ring trend (past, present, future for those of you fortunate enough to have missed the ads) is just a way for the cartel to create a new demand.

Comments

[gileswench.livejournal.com]

Diamonds never did anything for me. Well, you've seen my engagement ring; the silver frog prince. Learning more about how diamonds are mined and watching the diamond industry try to brainwash us that we neeeeeedd dozens of colorless rocks has just made me more and more glad that my rings don't have any. At first it was just personal preference. Now I find I've inadvertantly made a political statement I can feel damn good about.

Yes, I entirely understand what you're saying about Leonardo DiCaprio having ripened as an actor. I haven't witnessed it - purely because I don't go to a lot of movies combined with the fact that the couple things I've been interested in seeing that starred him didn't appeal nearly as much to J.J. - but I get what you're saying. Some actors have piles of potential for years and then one day something happens and the light clicks on.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's the neeeeeedd that really tweaks me. Most people get along very well without shiny stones.

If you get a chance to see Man in the Iron Mask, you should. Very pretty costumes, bad accents (one frenchman talks like Gerard Depardieu and another like John Malkovich -- not to mention Jeremy Irons and Gabriel Byrne), and flashy action. DiCaprio does a good job differentiating the two roles he plays. It's the movie that sold me on him as an actor. Titanic, eh. And Gilbert Grape is a show piece; those are often easier than the subtler roles.

[gileswench.livejournal.com]

Actually I saw Man in the Iron Mask. Malkovich sleepwalks through the whole thing, Porthos' role is one long fart joke, and overall I wanted my money back when I left the theater. It actually made me put DiCaprio firmly into the Matinee Idol camp rather than actor. I felt he did an entirely mediocre job with it. Titanic is one I'll never bother to see if only in protest of the fact that so many real vintage outfits were utterly destroyed when it would have been possible to make costumes for the purpose.

Gilbert Grape I may see one day if only because my brother keeps telling me he needs to show it to me one day. We'll see. But if I ever get my act together and find out in advance when The Aviator is going to be on one of the movie channels, I'd love to see it. I've heard a lot of great things about that one. And Blood Diamond is one I'd kind of like to see, too.

As for shiny stones...I like 'em, but I like 'em with color to them. Amathyst, sapphire, ruby, emerald, peridot, aquamarine, topaz, garnet...I love 'em all and so many more. Give me a citrine or a hunk of tourmaline and I'm a happy camper! But diamonds just never did a thing for me.

[(Anonymous)]

Interesting. My response to Man in the Iron Mask was: pretty scenery, lovely costumes, GORGEOUS Horses! and DiCaprio couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. Also interesting variation on the plot. What I find amusing is that the whole plot action depicted in the movies is just a minor sub-plot in the book. If you do read the book, make sure you get a decent translation, done by someone who didn't just leave bits out randomly.

Ki-lin

[wadjet-theperv.livejournal.com]

It does look interesting, but what puts me off is Leonardo DiCaprio's South African accent. I know a few South Africans and I worked for one for a couple of years and sadly he doesn't do a very good job of it.

Glad you enjoyed it though! Dang, I'm hard to please sometimes LOL

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

If it helps, he's supposed to be from Rhodesia. Yes, there's dialogue explaining that it's been called Zimbabwe for years. *G*

I've also known quite a few South Africans. He didn't bother me. Now the Afrikaans that was spoken sounded worse than usual to me, but I admit I'm working from Dutch. *G*

Seriously, if you can put the accent to one side, it's worth seeing -- if you can handle the violence. I will say very strongly that the violence is not in any way prettified. It's horrible. I can respect that far more than the pain porn that so much of Hollywood seems to turn out.