Watched (and enjoyed) a couple of recent Hollywood movies with overtly political themes.
Blood Diamond is about the horrible things that happen while mining diamonds in war-torn Africa. It features a superb performance by Leonardo DiCaprio as the Rhodesian mercenary: Danny Archer. It left a phrase embedded in my mind: TIA - This Is Africa. It had a happy ending.
Syriana is about the horrible things that happen while mining oil in the war-torn Middle East. It features a superb performance by Matt Damon as an American investment banker. It left a couple of gritty montages embedded in my mind: a lush, luxurious, sensuous party in Tehran, Pakistani migrant workers so bored that they would walk through the desert for entertainment. It had an ambigious and possibly tragic ending...and probably suffered in the box office for it.
Both movies have a ring of truth. Horrible things happen in oil and diamond mining.
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