Film Clips & Analysis

For our first clip we wanted to comment on several portions contained within this trailer. Soon we are hoping to have it edited down to the proper clips.

Clip 1:

     The scene here I want to talk specifically is the red sun at 0:05. In the film this red sun shot appears just before Vandy and Archer reach the Diamond Mine where Vandy was previously enslaved. Here we see this blood red setting sun. I believe the producers are using the color, and ominous silhouette of the sun to reinforce the point that this is the climax. Things are about to happen, and blood will be spilled. They strategically place it so it provides an ominous foreshadow of the next days events. Events that result in the death of Archer, the Colonel, and many RUF troops as well as some mercenaries. But the thing to remember about a setting sun is although things are dark right after, the sun always rises once more. Each time it rises just as bright. We see this in the saving of Dia from the horrors of life as a child soldier, and his redemption when he remembers who he is and lowers his pistol away from his father and Archer. We also see the sun rise from darkness in the indictment of the Van de Kaap company who is still trading in valuable blood diamonds as Vandy helps to reveal.

Clip 2:

     The film spans several different landscapes as well as several different nations.  From rocky, grass covered mountains, to genocide along the coast, to a jungled river valley and to the relatively Westernized Capetown, the environment-both man made and natural-drives the action and sets the pace for the film.  As this clip shows, some of the most intense action and worst violence occurs in the jungle.  The diamond mine itself, filled with merciless guards, child soldiers, and slave labor, rests in a jungle clearing.  Archer, the veteran mercenary who will sacrifice anything for the gigantic diamond, begins to lose his mind after Solomon accidentally alerts guards to their position.  After fleeing from the guards and falling asleep in the jungle, Solomon wakes to find a dead animal that Archer had skinned, who then threatens to do the same to Solomon.  The jungle serves as the home to some of the worst examples of human behavior, which this clip clearly shows.  This clip directly precedes the third film example and is the final example of violence in the film (it also occurs in the jungle).  Solomon has successfully spirited his child from the labor camp, eliminated the maniacal camp leader with a personal vengeance, and has just dug up the diamond.  The camp is being engaged by mercenary forces equally set on finding the diamond with superior fire support capabilities, and the forces’ colonel-Archer’s former CO- takes advantage of the confusion to track and ambush Solomon, Archer, and Dia Vandy. 

Clip 3:

     The film, which revolves around the intertwined quest for a priceless diamond and an abducted-son-turned-child-soldier, has an emotional conclusion.  Solomon finds his son, who reluctantly leaves the child-soldier profession and rejoins his father, and Archer finds the diamond.  However, after shooting their way out of a four-element raid on the diamond field, Archer is seriously wounded and can’t continue to the exfil site atop a small mountain.  Showing his humanist side for the first time in the film, Archer gives up the diamond, handing it to Solomon with instructions to take it to London and draw international attention to the corrupt diamond trade.  From an elevated position above an African valley, Archer calls Matty to coordinate help for Solomon, and connect with her for the final time.  She presses him on where he is, and he responds by saying that he’s exactly where he is supposed to be.  As he dies, Archer absorbs the incredibly beautiful scenery surrounding him, and the scene ends as the evac plane flies into a blood-red sun.  The physical scenery is connected to the emotional drama of the film; from his elevated position, the serene forest and rolling hills serves as a calming end to the violence and bloodshed.  Additionally, Archer bleeds onto the red soil that surrounds him.  His blood mixes with the dirt, which he clenches in his fist, and mixes his loss with the earth’s gain.  Finally, the evacuation plane’s approach to the setting sun concludes the viewer’s experience with Africa, visually painting the continent as a land of intense beauty and natural richness with a dangerous, bloody tendency.