1999 and Sierra Leone is in the midst of civil war, the rebels infamously using an army of indoctrinated children to do their genocidal work. In the midst of this bloodshed two unlikely men are drawn together, one a desperate father whose son has become a rebel soldier, the other a self-serving white Rhodesian mercenary in search of an immense uncut diamond. The two are bound together by their wildly divergent, but inextricably linked, quests and it is here that the action of the film lies as they race across the country, cheating death more times than is likely. What sets Blood Diamond apart from the normal swath of Hollywood adventures is Di Caprio's central character, a man with few principles and little morality, but not utterly devoid of conscience, in short he is believable, there are no epiphanies, no schizophrenic changes of heart, and it is this that makes the film more than the sum of its outward appearance, he is certainly not a better man than his black counterpart, he just has more experience at killing people. Granted Blood Diamond is still a big budget American movie, the action is great and the whole thing only brushes past the intense humanitarian, political and moral issues, but it's a step in the right direction and highly entertaining in the process.