The Movie Blood Diamond - Term Paper Example

Number Anthropology- Analyzing A Movie: Blood Diamond The movie blood diamond is based in a West African nation, Sierra Lone. This small nation was ravaged by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in 1991 till 2002. It led to the formation of 2 million refugees and destroyed the country, the people and the infrastructure; basically leading to anarchy. RUF started out as working for the poor of the country but they began to lose their goals and wavered to a different direction. They started waging war against the country and its people; villages were destroyed, children and women hurt. Many who were captured were mutilated and their body parts cut off. Others had to work in the diamond mines; they were slaves in their own country. Diamonds were what RUF primarily sought and they were essential for RUF’s survival so that they could use them to get weapons. Diamonds were not only mined by the inhabitants of the country, but they were not used by them. They were sold off by RUF through Liberia, which was Sierra Leone’s neighboring country and the president there supported the RUF. The country was also stripped of its assets and the diamonds which were known as blood or conflict diamonds because they were found and mined in the war zone areas and funded insurgencies. Then they were traded all around the world through Liberia. (Mitchell, Zwick and Herskovitz) The movie is set in 1999 and the lives of an Anglo mercenary and a fisherman in Sierra Lone coincide with an American reporter. They are Danny Archer, Solomon Vandy and Maddy Bowen respectively. Solomon’s town is ravaged by the RUF troops and rebels cause the villagers to run for their lives. The RUF took children and trained them to be their soldiers and basically killers and this violent war began in which there 10,000 of these child soldiers. Solomon is forced to work in the mines for diamonds and so is his son. The kids from Sierra Lone are shown as being below the RUF members and the children are taught to become part of them and forget their own; in other words they become terrorists. Solomon stumbles across a huge pink diamond and hides it and struggles to do that till the end. In jail Danny Archer’s and Solomon’s paths cross and there is again a mix in races between the Anglo mercenary who lived in Zimbabwe and the rural poor of Sierra Lone. Everyone’s goal is still the same regardless of their race or class: to get the blood diamonds before anyone else gets to them. There is a gender bias in the movie since apart from one woman, the rest aren’t highlighted, they being the rural poor and the women in Sierra Lone who suffer terrible hardships as well, mostly with their hands and feet cut off and the movie is predominantly male in nature since the struggle is between the two male actors. Maddy Bowen brings in a further blend of ethnicities because she is an American reporter with her own agenda: she wants to write a story on the blood diamonds and their corporations and this also brings in a tone of an American reporter in a place where women reporters were unheard; in fact the entire movie depicts reporters and such concepts as being predominantly absent in the rural poor areas of Sierra Lone. (Mitchell, Zwick and Herskovitz) The romantic connect in the movie is also between the Anglo and the American ethnicities and Bowen agrees to Archer’s proposal for a story in return for help in looking for Solomon’s family. There is also a hearing in South Africa where Maddy and Solomon travel together where solutions to the blood diamond problem are discussed at the Kimberly Conference. Solomon again seems to represent the lower class; he is awkward in the court room setting in a suit, and in the room full of groomed people talking about problems they couldn’t relate to since they weren’t experiencing it made him feel further alienated. The Kimberly Process Certification Scheme was an outcome of the conference in 2000 and it was finally implemented in 2003; according to this scheme the diamonds were to be conflict free and have rightful ownership. Once again, the international community set up is shown to b right; they seem to be concerned about the welfare of Sierra Lone, more so than their own people, forgetting that it was the RUFs who promised the rural poor a better place and the land was better before their rampage. Governmental and non-government agencies and involves various ethnicities in the face of many countries who are for preventing the trade of these diamonds whose funds go in ravaging Africa. Africa seems to be portrayed as the downtrodden and the lower class, and the other races, be it American or Anglo seem to be above them; thus shown by their power even in the land of Africa. Thus the international community comes together to urge consumers to buy diamonds knowing that it didn’t cause any trouble in Africa; the aim again seems to be to uphold sales rather than to save lives. Also there is no complete assurance because the process isn’t agreed upon by every country and there are still such illicit trades going on. There is also a clear negative stereotype against the Africans; they are perceived as a threat and only worthy of working as slaves and nothing else; if they do have power that is also due to fear and constant violence; through the acquisition of some arms. They are thought of as uneducated and unfit for the use of blood diamonds on their own but to sell it and still get their land more ravaged. (Spradley and McCurdy) There is also clear racial discrimination; a reflection of what goes on in the world today, the gap between the rich and the poor grows larger and the poor suffer horrible indecencies everywhere, not just in Africa. They are treated as second class citizens and made to believe that they aren’t worthy of anything but an abysmal life of slavery and terrorism. They live in abject poverty and thus have no will or power to speak out to those who make slaves of themselves. And the treatments is cruel; not only are their men dragged into the state of affairs, but their wives and daughters and children also suffer, often without any shame from the ruling party. There are not only racial inequalities but also income inequalities portrayed in this movie that are rampant around the world. The Africans collecting diamonds in the war zone areas don’t earn anything compared to those sitting in the Kimberly Conference or others who are perceived above them. The inequality is too meager a word to actually use for these killings; they are bordering on genocide as depicted in the movie; the male dominance, the shaky ground underneath the feet of those who were born poor. The poor can either remain poor and accept their defeated fate, or become villains. But there is a hope; there is one extraordinary man who changes the face of the races and shows that even in his inequality, he is an equal if not more. That is a beacon of hope; but we don’t know the aftermath. We don’t know what exactly is happening there and as audiences, we are placid. The movie is also not shot in Sierra Lone; and only based there, which shows that even for production purposes, the place which was ravaged by rebels isn’t considered even fit for shooting. The difference between races is also in a very serious undertone; almost threatening and not to be taken lightly. There are no different dimensions of women explored; only the American reporter and the different sides of men are shown; all protective and seeking out for themselves. Solomon is a family man, and that concept of family comes about by his protection of his son and his race. There seems to be no sexuality between the Africans as well; they seem to be an overall defeated nation in the movie. The Africans look rugged and dirty, because of the conditions and the jobs that they do; mostly slavery and dealing with terrorism. They are portrayed as unscrupulous, as unscrupulous as the RFUs and the occupation associated with their race is slavery; finding gems in a war zone that wouldn’t even be used by them or for them but sold off to further ruin their situation. They are stuck in this poverty cycle, unable to get out. Parenting practice that is observed is overprotective; but that is understandable since children are taken up at an early age by the RFUs and brainwashed to consider killing as necessary to survive The lifestyle of the Africans is also shown as primitive at best; even those RFUs who ravaged the land at the expense of themselves didn’t have palaces, or the dignity that comes with class. They all seem to have minimal education and violence is considered the norm among them. The international society seems to be completely alien and foreign, none of them exploring the country for their own, but sitting in a Conference discussing one aspect of a major issue which is the blood diamonds and their trading. They seem to be associated with rational ideas and moral thinking compared to the Africans, and solving problems, where as the Africans seem to be stereotyped as creating more issues and a continuous cycle of them forms which becomes a part of their life. (Spradley and McCurdy) The movie is based on several anthropological factors cricumferencing around race, gender and inequality all around and in every aspect of the movie from beginning to end, with kids turned into killing machines just to satisfy some need for the RFUs which would never be satisfied. Eventually things take a good turn in the movie; but a question remains in the end as to who really is that strong to break the ties of strong racial and income discrimination all over the world, and who in fact is actually successful? Works Cited Mitchell, C Gaby, et al. Blood Diamond. Warner Bro, 2006. Spradley, James P and David W McCurdy. Conformity and conflict : readings in cultural anthropology. Allyn and Bacon, 2003. Read More