Blood Diamond Essay

Africa was known as The Dark Continent during the Victorian Era, believed by Europeans to be a land where even the slightest trace of civilization t lasts to adjourn under mania and savagery. It seems especi solelyy common for Europeans to assume that any sensation who ventures into Africa would then make it into an irrevocable state of delirium. Such nonion was amplified by Joseph Conrad, who, in rawness of Darkness, alikek Africa as a land so free from moral restraints that no civility could stand from being pulverized by its darkness. stemma Diamond, date a hundred years after rawness of Darkness, presents a un motive diorama. Although the take away seems to faithfully support the conventional view of Africa as a place that forces its inhabitants into madness, a closer examination of line of products Diamond shows that, sort of the opposite of depicting Africa as The Dark Continent, the plastic film actually re exclusivelys the view by emphasizing the underlying grac e of the land. Blood Diamond sends extinct the message that rather then being the other management around, it is the colonizers of Africa who atomic number 18 forcing the perfect into its present state of frenzy and madness.Through contrasting amid parts of Africa with assorted degrees of western influence, director Edward Zwick shows that Africa without colonization would be a land of stay and grace. This contrast is make uped between the depiction of an RUF (Revolutionary joined Front) headquarters and an elusive school that lies within the immutable hobo camps of Africa. Zwick uses costume to even up western ideals brought to Africa through colonization when portraying the RUF headquarters.When Danny Archer first gets remove the plane to do business with Commander Zero, the audience is introduced to a base of African teenagers dressed in shockingly familiar looking attires. thus Captain Rambo, a member of the RUF, is dressed in no way diverse from any North American boy. His clothing without doubt emulates the behavior of North American hip-hop generation. His wide sunglasses, baggy pants, and chain necklace all too well indicate western influence. It is plainly when he holds up a gun that the audience senses a strong odour of irony.The gangster image that prevails this RUF headquarters contrasts with a peaceful African community in the midst of the jungle, a community in which the effect of colonization is little app atomic number 18nt. In fact, Zwick speaks of this community as an island of sanity. The term island denotes not only a sense of isolation from the atrocity of the surrounding world, but also a sense of isolation from western influence. It is within this community that a group of child soldiers are carefully returned to life.Of these two African communities, the one that displays a crave for western ideals is the one that rears violence and madness, whereas the primitive jungle described as the very medium of suffocation in H eart of Darkness becomes the place where sanity is restored. Through contrasting between a world greatly influenced by colonization and a world that is not yet penetrable to its grasp, Blood Diamond clearly gets the idea that it is the gaberdine people who are jeopardizing Africas graceful soul with their intrusion, and it is the colonizers of Africa who are in conclusion accountable for any violence seen there today.Zwick also uses various types of shots to establish Africa as a graceful land. Although scenes of RUF troops committing heinous violence are omnipresent in Blood Diamond, Zwick does not forget to show what Africa was wish well before war and colonization. The use of master shots often precedes any scenes of violence in the film to constantly remind the audience of the majestic aspect of Africa. Shots of grand canyons, peaceful sunset, and misty cities again and again take the audience breath away.These shots are images of Africa entirely different from those under scoring problems of poverty and hunger commonly seen in media, thereby are all the more shocking. It is indeed stiff for one to find a trace of savagery or madness in this landscape. Without these shots, one would laugh with an air dismissal when Dia says to his father instructor says our landed estate (Sierra Leone) was built to be an utopia. But with these breathtaking images, the audience cannot protagonist but to ruminate over Dias belief that when the war is over, our country will become a paradise.Apart from using master shots, Blood Diamond also employs wide shots to convey interchangeable ideas. The film opens with a wide shot of fishermen working against sunrise. In the shot, the black silhouettes moving quietly yet arduously against the breaking dawn of the sky effectively convey a sense of peace. By integrating various types of shots into the content of the film in a meaningful manner, Zwick successfully delivers his desire to show what Africa was like before coloni zation. These shots are key to establishing Africa as a land of peace before its colonizers arrival.Zwick also conveys the idea that it is the Europeans who are responsible Africas present chaotic state by probing the different meanings of diamond in Africa and in Europe. A character responsible for this storey of the film is a sadistic RUF mine general customary Poison. by-line after the invaluable diamond like an animal after the purport of carcass, General Poison is depicted as the very heart of torturing and madness throughout the film. In the prison scene, Zwicks use of light and colour effectively turns General Poison into the icon of animosity similar to that described in Heart of Darkness.The prison scene is dominated by a sickly luscious combination of brown, green, and red, creating a canvas that is track down by greed and fear. Here, Zwick plays around with the employment of fluorescence light to give General Posion the aura of a mad dog as he barks at Solomon Van dy. Yet General Poison reveals something rather astonishing near the end he craves for that diamond not because of greed, like the diamond dealers in London, but because he wants to escape his own cruelty. You think I am a devil, but it is only because I have been in hell.I want to get out, and you will help me. This is what the general says to Solomon, and the audience learns that he too is a prisoner suffering from the effects of colonization. General Poison craves for that priceless diamond not because of the wealth it shall bring, but because it is his only ticket out. As soon as this is revealed, the audience learns that his devilish behaviour is not the pass on of his native instinct rather, it is the firmness of purpose of having to cope with the values of washcloth men. It is white people, the colonizers, who are forcing him into madness.Suffocated by the atrocity of colonization, he must act cruelly to free himself from his own madness. This internal irony shows that Afr ica is not a clear with the natural tendency to drive its inhabitants into madness rather, the madness seen in the film is only the result of Africans trying to cope with the values of their colonizers. In Blood Diamond, Zwick effectively combines style and content to show that Africa is not a continent of darkness and savagery rather, the moral dilapidation seen there today is the result of colonization.Indeed instead of pushing those who venture into its land beyond the boundaries of civilization, Africa is itself a prisoner and a sufferer. It is with productions like Blood Diamond that the images outlined in Heart of Darkness become increasingly relegated from the status of a daybook to that of a fiction. It is with productions like Blood Diamond that the truth about Africa is late revealed. In a way, Blood Diamond has given Africa a attestation of its grace that is rather long overdue.