Whilst worthy and noble in its topic and sentiment, I think it's a racist film. It is very well made, but throughout the 'Africans' (here war torn Sierre Leone) are either gun toting warlords, and bandits; or poor victims. Only the white people are the decision makers and shown with any intelligence, and even they are corrupt. Whereas any African nation is much more complex than this.
The ordinary father figure and family man (Djimon Houson)'s viewpoint isn't strong enough - he is shown as weak, bullied, emotional - I wanted to cheer when he finally punched Leonardo Dicaprio's character. All the man wanted to do was rescue his son from warlord grooming and get his family out, lead a normal, peaceful life. He wasn't given a strong enough character, given the amount of determination he showed to a) hide a diamond successfully undetected by a crazed warlord and b) seek to recover his son from military enslavement.
The camerawork kind of gloried in the shooting and explosions and chaos, although we were meant to be shocked by the casual brutality of young boys being turned into soldiers who are asked to shoot their own parents, aunties, uncles, neighbours, the adults who are meant to be caring for them, the adults they're meant to be respecting and emulating within their society.
More problematic is the portrayal of women in this film - the story completely glosses over what is being done to women in conflict zones - mass rape, systematised abuse and enslavement, trafficking, forced prostitution, young girls being used as drug mules. Not to mention the unwanted babies produced by the abuse and the rejected child soldiers who are no longer wanted by their communities and despised. Nor is the social impact considered - families are broken, but also parental figures are lost in conflicts, leading to lots of women and grandparents brining up generations, and many, many orphans. The only woman who is even half decent is the aid worker (Jennifer Connelly) and even she is basically 'sexy' aid worker. The appalling treatment of women is silenced in this film.
The whole thing was too simplistic and I can't believe they used the words 'third world voices' - honestly!
David Harewood was brilliantly chilling; Djimon Houson was magnificent in a very underwritten, underpowered role - in his face alone, looking more and more appalled at everything he sees (and really acting as an emotional focal point for the viewer); Leonardo Dicaprio was wonderful in an amoral role, in accent, behaviour and sacrifice at the end in getting the family out. Michael Sheen was a smarmy, slimy evil Brit.
I wish Sierre Leonian voices and stories had been allowed to speak fully for themselves, rather than having this Western overlay. The most powerful part is in the father reaching and speaking to his son, offering forgiveness not hate and restoration not banishment.
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