Before I start, did I mention I was heading through Brentwood High Street, a few days ago, and saw a poster in a perfume shop … ?
You see a lot of posters in perfume shops, I know.
But the one in question struck me as mildly funny.
Well, ok, hysterically funny.
Because it was for a perfume called Never Mind the B@!!*‹%s, Here’s the Sex Pistols.
I’ve still got a persistent thought in my mind, even now: that if John Lydon — Mr Rotten, as was — were dead, he’d be spinning in his grave.
Or, at the very least complaining that McLaren had had ’em over again … !
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At any rate, cheap perfumes are kind of a side issue, aren’t they … ?
Possibly …
At any rate, I’ve got to admit, Movie Night Adrian and I had something a quiet movie night, tonight: bless, Squeak and Big Josh were over at Big J’s fathers place, Kevin D, bless him, was knackered after a hard day’s night.
And Kay and her fella, Rob, couldn’t make it, either … !
Which is a shame, I think they’d’ve enjoyed tonight’s film …
The 2006, Ed Zwick directed, thriller film, Blood Diamond.
Which I’ve got to admit, isn’t maybe the best paced film of it’s length — 2 hours and 17 minutes — that I’ve seen.
But does manage to make a very good attempt to keep moving.
And maybe make a point or two at the same time, so maybe I can let that go …
Set during Sierra Leone’s mid-1990’s civil war, Blood Diamond sees Solomon Vandy*, a Mende fisherman who’s captured — at the film’s start — by troops from the rebel Revolutionary United Front, and enslaved to work in the country’s diamond mines.
Actually, if you didn’t know, by now, this is where Blood Diamond gets its name: the diamonds in question are ones that are mined, polished and exported illegally, usually from African warzones, and sold on in order to keep funding the war in the areas they’re from. Usually, by both sides in the war.
And never mind the civilian population killed, enslaved or mutilated in the process.
Which is where the story really kicks off: whilst captured, Solomon manages to find — and hide — a seriously large rough diamond. One that he manages to hide, before being released, to a local friendly jail run by Sierra Leone’s government.
Where he runs into Danny Archerº, a Rhodesian mercenary and diamond smuggler. Who decides to help, after realising exactly how big the hidden stone is …
And both men are helped by Maddy Brownª, a campaigning journalist determined to try and bring the trade in diamonds to an end, having seen the suffering the trade causes: and very aware that her home country is one of the largest diamond markets on the planet …
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Now, other’s have explained the plot a lot better than me.
But I think that this is definitely worth seeing.
It’s a nicely acted, beautifully crafted film, if a touch unevenly paced for its length.
But — even though it’s fictional — does attempt to make us aware of conflict diamonds.
Actually, there’s probably others substances, as well: after all, I can’t help but wonder exactly how much heroin money ended up funding the various factions of Taliban … ?
I’m also aware that Adrian was thinking that there’s one or two rare metals — only available from Africa — that make up some of the hardware we use, daily, in various forms of electronic hardware, that gets out of the continent, in much the same way: I do know there’s a lot of information out on the ’Net about illegally disposed of e-waste.
I also know that — in the post-match natter — we both agreed that a certain amount of moralising can be …
If not pointless, then certainly unhelpful.
He’s got a point, I’m thinking: after all, we can only complain about something, if we’ve tried to do something about it.
Even if it’s only on the level of buying fairtrade teabags.
* Beautifully played by Djimon Hounsou, I should add, here.
º Leonardo DiCaprio.
ª Jennifer Connelly.
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