2005

New "Blood Diamond" Movie To Star DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly

November 2005

A new movie is about to bring the conflict diamond issue to movie screens.

Called "The Blood Diamond," it will star Leonardo Di Caprio and Jennifer Connelly. DiCaprio will play a diamond smuggler in Africa.
"The Blood Diamond" will be set in Sierra Leone around 1999, a period when the region was in the midst of a civil war—a war that was mostly fueled by diamonds.

We can’t help but view this movie as historical fiction. Given all the things the industry has done to solve this problem, it doesn’t deserve more publicity on this very unfortunate issue.

We hope the movie notes that the war in Sierra Leone ended five years ago, and that so-called "blood diamonds" were only a small amount of overall production, and that in the years since the industry has introduced a certification scheme to make sure that any diamonds tainted by war to not enter the mainstream of commerce. Consumers don’t have to worry about getting "blood" stones. We hope Hollywood lets them know this.