Today, I watched “Flawless” starring Michael Caine, Demi Moore, and… diamonds. Not a patch, though, when compared to “Blood Diamond”… which I watched yet again, last night.
It lead me to think what an amazing star Leonardo DiCaprio truly is… a mercenary, out from Rhodesia a.k.a. Zimbabwe, “Danny Archer” teams up with “Solomon Vandy”, the fisherman who was wrenched from his family, his village, and dragged to labor in the “conflict-diamond” mines! Played superbly by Djimon Hounsou as Vandy, together they set out to search for the 100 carat pink diamond… amidst the mayhem lead by the RUF in Sierra Leone in 1999. The movie juxtaposes Vandy’s search for his abducted son-turned-rebel, over Archer’s search for the “rare pink” that would ‘release’ him from the African continent. Try finding flaws in Edward Zwick’s direction of “Blood Diamond“. I see none!
Zwick floored us as Producer of “Traffic” with Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro, even as Steven Soderbergh shone as Director for this film. Soderbergh has also given us other memorable films, including “Erin Brockovich” starring Julia Roberts; thrillers as in the trilogy “Oceans Eleven-12-13”; “Michael Clayton” with Oscar winners Tilda Swinton, and George Clooney was a Soderbergh production. Back again, Edward Zwick was outstanding as Director of “The Last Samurai” – starring Ken Watanabe and Tom Cruise – and set against a backdrop of late 19th century Japan. Zwick’s “Legends of the Fall” with Brad Pitt & Anthony Hopkins was also visually stunning… of course, by bringing the beauty of the Rockies in Montana, John Toll bagged the Oscar for Best Cinematography for this movie that year (1995).
It reminds me, it’s time to make another animoto clip starring posters of these favorite films.
Words-n-Motion 