Summary Blood Diamond Movie (2006)

Name   : Nur Elisha                                                                                                     April 14, 2016
Class    : English Literature C
NIM    : 1514025003
Mulawarman University
Introduction to Cultural Studies

Summary for Blood Diamond

            The film tells the Sierra Leone Civil War in 1999, civil war broke out because they fight for the diamond mines. The film shows the Sierra Leone torn apart by the struggle between government soldiers and rebel forces, called Revolutionary United Front (RUF). And the RUF rebels over control of the nation’s diamond mines. There are atrocities of that war. Conflict with the RUF arose because multinational organizations operating in Sierra Leone were not plowing their profits into the local economy, thereby starving occurs everywhere. However, then the RUF rebels came to invade the local population, especially in village areas. The RUF rebels were notorious for amputating villagers and recruiting young boys as soldiers.

Villages were burned, many of those who were captured and their hands hacked off by machetes and others were forced to work as slaves in the country's diamond mines. The diamond was used to buy weapons. The diamonds mined in war zones and used to fund insurgencies. This film also shows of Danny Archer, an ex-mercenary from Zimbabwe, Solomon Vandy, a fisherman from Shenge, Dia Vandy, Solomon’s son and Maddy Bowen, an American journalist.

            The film begins when Solomon tells his son, Dia to go to school. After school end, Solomon and Dia walk together. And then the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) invades their village. Their villages were burned, women and children gunned down. Solomon runs to save his wife and his children. But, Solomon arrested, he sees the rebels' amputation of people's hands to stop them from voting in upcoming elections. Separated from his family, Solomon is enslaved to work in the diamond fields under the command of Captain Poison. While he is working in the RUF diamond fields as a forced laborer, Solomon finds of a rare large diamond. Moments before government troops launch an attack, Captain Poison sees Solomon hiding the diamond. Captain Poison is injured in the attack before he can get the stone, and both of them with all people in there are arrested and brought to a jail in the Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.

            Danny Archer is imprisoned after being caught smuggling the diamonds into neighboring Liberia, and the diamonds are confiscated. He brings the diamonds to a South African mercenary named Colonel Coetzee, who is in turn employed by South African diamond’s company executive Van De Kaap and Van De Kaap’s deputy named Simmons. Danny is in the same prison with Solomon. While in the prison, Danny hears Captain Poison ranting to Solomon about the large diamond and decides to hunt the diamond. Danny arranges Solomon to out from the prison and he want to Solomon find the diamond and offers to help him find his family.

            Danny accidentally meets Maddy Bowen, she is an investigative journalist seeking to break a big story on the illegal smuggling of conflict diamonds in Sierra Leone. And Solomon’s son Dia has been seized and forced to be a 'child soldier' for the 'Revolutionary United Front' (RUF). Danny still persuades Solomon, and at that moment, there is a war between government army and the RUF rebels. After a tough sell he agrees to show Danny where the diamond is, but only after he has his family with him. Maddy helps Solomon track down his family in Guinea. He is quickly reunited with Jessie, his wife and his daughters at a refugee camp, but he mad and depression when he know of his son fate.

            Maddy soon knows that Danny is using Solomon to find his diamond and will eventually steal it for himself, to give to Colonel Coetzee and leave Africa forever. Maddy refuses to help Danny unless he can tell her about the diamond market to stop the flow of blood diamonds out of Africa, cutting off funding for Civil War and ending a mass revolution. Danny gives she the information that she wants and gets access to use the press convoy to travel to Kono to find the diamond.

            The convoy is attacked by the RUF rebels. Danny, Solomon and Maddy escape and find their way to the mercenary force under Colonel Coetzee. Danny and Solomon leave the camp on foot while Maddy boards a plane carrying foreigners out of the conflict zone. After walking quite a distance and passing through several villages, Solomon wants to meet his son, in the village under RUF control. There, Solomon is reunited with his son, Dia refuses to acknowledge him, because he has been brainwashed by Captain Poison and the rebels.

Solomon is also reunited with Captain Poison, and he wears Dia to trap Solomon and pressing him to find the diamond. But, the mercenary force under Colonel Coetzee, dispatches the RUF rebels in a massive air strike, kills many of the RUF rebels and some of the miners. Solomon kills Captain Poison with a shovel. Through a deal with Danny, Colonel Coetzee forces Solomon to find the diamond. In a desperate battle, Danny kills Colonel Coetzee and the other soldiers. Then, suddenly Dia holds a gun, he pointed the gun toward to Danny and Solomon. But, Solomon managed to convince Dia, that Solomon is his father, Solomon tells about his family and he is a good boy.

            Danny then asked for the diamond and called the pilot to pick them up, but he realizes he has been shot, he can’t walks again. Solomon then holds Danny to go to the top of the hill. However, Danny really can’t continue the way again, he finally gave the diamonds to Solomon and asked them to rescue Dia and also went from there. Danny managed to shoot the soldiers who came, while Solomon and Dia left. Danny makes a final phone call to Maddy, asking her to help Solomon as a last favor before looking out over the beautiful landscape of Africa once more and dying peacefully.

            With the help of Maddy, Solomon went to London and trades the diamond to Simmons, he asked the price that has been specified by Danny and also asked his family to come. During the transaction, Maddy secretly photographs the deal. Later publishes a magazine expoising the trade “conflict” and “blood” diamonds. Solomon smiled at Danny’s photo in magazine. Van De Kaap and Solomon arrested. And the film ends with Solomon who attended the conference which addressed the issue of blood diamonds in Kimberley, South Africa.