At The Movies With Alain Roca

Well Hello There Mr. Alain Roca!

The former Cuban player who now plays for Ural Ufa with Lloy Ball in the Russian League shares his favorite movies of all time. The 35 year old who enjoys playing Domino and listening to music on his free time has mentioned that the main reason why he likes the movies listed below is because of the message they each transmit to the audience.

The Pursuit Of Happyness: In 1981, in San Francisco, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) invests his family’s savings in portable bone-density scanners which he tries to demonstrate and sell to doctors. The investment proves to be a white elephant, which financially breaks the family and as a result, his girlfriend Linda (Thandie Newton) leaves him and moves to New York. Their son Christopher (Jaden Smith) remains with his father. While downtown trying to sell one of his scanners, Chris meets a manager for Dean Witter and impresses him by solving a Rubik’s Cube during a short cab ride. Chris does not have enough money for the cab fare and flees the cab driver into a subway station where he barely escapes the cab driver but loses one of his bone scanners in the process. This new relationship with the Dean Witter manager earns him the chance to become an intern stockbroker.

Despite arriving there unkempt and shabbily dressed due to an emergency, Chris is offered the internship. Chris is further set back when his bank account is garnished by the IRS for unpaid taxes, and he and his young son are evicted. As a result they are homeless, and are forced at one point to stay in a bathroom at a subway station. Motivation drives him to find the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, which has a homeless shelter primarily for single mothers and their children. The church’s owner does not let him stay due to the fact that it is for women and children, although she tells him about a local church that also provides shelter, but has very limited space. Due to demand for the limited rooms, Chris must frantically race from his internship work early each afternoon in order to land a place in line. Chris finds the bone scanner that he lost in the subway station from a demented man who believes it to be a time machine and it is now damaged, but Chris finally repairs it.

Disadvantaged by his limited work hours, and knowing that maximizing his client contacts and profits is the only way to earn the one paid position that he and his 19 competitors are fighting for, Chris develops a number of ways to make phone sales calls more efficiently. He also reaches out to potential high value customers, defying protocol. One sympathetic prospect takes him and his son to a San Francisco 49ers game. Regardless of his challenges, Chris never reveals his lowly circumstances to his co-workers, even going so far as to lend one of his bosses five dollars for a cab, a sum he can’t afford.

Concluding his internship, Chris is called into a meeting with his managers. His work has paid off and he is offered the position. Fighting back tears, he rushes to his son’s daycare, hugging him. They walk down the street, joking with each other and are passed by a man in a business suit (the real Chris Gardner in a cameo). The epilogue reveals that Chris went on to form his own multi-million dollar brokerage firm. (Wikipedia)

Adjustment Bureau: In 2006, Congressman David Norris runs a promising but unsuccessful campaign for United States Senate. While rehearsing his concession speech in a hotel bathroom, David finds a woman hiding in a stall. The two share a pleasant conversation, ultimately leading to a kiss. Inspired, David delivers a candid speech that is well-received, making him a favorite for the 2010 Senate race.

Some months later, David is preparing to start his first day at a new job. At a park near David’s house, Harry Mitchell receives an assignment from Richardson, his boss: ensure David spills his coffee by 7:05 AM; shortly thereafter Mitchell falls asleep while waiting and misses David, who boards his bus. He encounters Elise, the woman from the bathroom, who gives David her phone number. When David arrives at work, he finds his boss and campaign manager, Charlie Traynor, frozen in time, being examined by unfamiliar men in suits. David attempts to escape and the men pursue. David is incapacitated and taken to a warehouse to meet Richardson.

Richardson explains he and his men are from the Adjustment Bureau. They ensure people’s lives proceed as determined by “the plan”, a complex document Richardson attributes to “the Chairman”.[7][8] Charlie is fine and will not remember his adjustment, and David is warned that if he talks about the Bureau he will be “reset”—akin to being lobotomized. Richardson informs David that he is not meant to meet Elise again. He burns the card containing her phone number and tells David to forget her.

For the next three years David rides the same bus downtown, hoping to see Elise. He finally encounters her and they reconnect. The Bureau tries to stop him from building their relationship by causing their schedules to separate them. David races across town, fighting the Bureau’s abilities to “control his choices” to ensure he will meet Elise. During the chase the Bureau uses ordinary doorways to travel instantly to locations many blocks away.

Richardson discovers that David and Elise “were meant to be together in an earlier version of the plan”, and Harry speculates on whether the plan is always correct. David and Elise spend an evening at a party, connecting when David tells her he became a politician after the loss of his mother and brother. They spend the night together.

The Bureau has Thompson take authority regarding David’s adjustment. He takes Norris to a warehouse, where David argues he has the right to choose his own path. Thompson says that they gave humanity free will after the height of the Roman Empire, but humanity then brought the Dark Ages down upon itself. The Bureau took control again and created the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. When free will was returned around 1910 it resulted in two world wars and the near destruction of the planet with a nuclear conflict. Thompson releases him, and he runs to Elise’s performance at her dance studio. Thompson follows, and tells him that if he stays with Elise, he will ruin his political future as President of the United States and also ruin Elise’s future as a world-famous dancer and choreographer; with David, Elise will be limited to teaching dance to children. To make a point, he uses his adjustment power to cause Elise to sprain her ankle. With his future in jeopardy and faced with sabotaging Elise’s future as well, David abandons her at the hospital.

Eleven months later, David runs for election again and sees an announcement of Elise’s imminent wedding. Harry, feeling guilty for earlier events, contacts David via secret meetings in the rain and near water. David learns from Harry that the Bureau’s weakness is water, allowing them to meet without the Bureau finding out. Harry reveals that Thompson exaggerated the negative consequences of David and Elise’s relationship, and he teaches David to use the doors so he may stop Elise’s wedding. He gives David his hat, empowering Norris to use the doors. David finds Elise in the bathroom of the courthouse where she is to be wed. Furious and hurt after his earlier desertion, Elise is shocked when David reveals the Bureau’s existence to her and shows her how he travels through doors. They are pursued across New York City. When David and Elise find themselves at the base of the Statue of Liberty, David decides to find the Chairman. Elise wavers briefly but then follows David across.

They go through the door to the Bureau headquarters. Eventually, they are trapped on a rooftop above New York, with Bureau members closing in. They declare their love for each other and kiss before David can be reset. When they let go of each other, the Bureau members have gone. Thompson is abruptly on scene but is interrupted by Harry, who shows him a new, revised plan from the Chairman. After commending them for showing such devotion to each other, Harry retrieves his hat and tells David and Elise they are free to “take the stairs”. The film concludes with David and Elise walking through the streets accompanied by a voice-over from Harry, speculating that the Chairman’s larger plan may be to get humanity back to a point where they can write their own plans. (Wikipedia)

The Pianist: In 1939, Władysław Szpilman (Adrien Brody), a Polish Jewish pianist, has his radio station rocked from German bombing with Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland and the subsequent outbreak of World War II. Hoping for a quick victory, Szpilman rejoices with family at home when learning that Britain and France have declared war on Germany. However the Germans enter Warsaw and living conditions for the Jews deteriorate. They are allowed a limited amount of money and later must wear armbands with the Star of David. By November 1940, they are forced into horrid and humiliating conditions in the Warsaw Ghetto, where Szpilman’s family witness an SS group raid a home, throw a disabled man off the balcony and gun down others.

Soon the family are rounded up for deportation to the extermination camp at Treblinka but Szpilman is saved by a friend in the Jewish Ghetto Police. Szpilman becomes a slave labourer where he learns of a coming uprising and helps by smuggling weapons into the ghetto, narrowly avoiding a suspicious guard. He manages to escape and go into hiding with help from non-Jewish friend Andrzej Bogucki and his wife. In 1943, Szpilman watches the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising he aided and the aftermath as the perpetrators are killed. A year goes by and Szpilman is forced to flee after a neighbor discovers him. In a second hiding place provided to him, he is shown into a room with a piano but forced to keep quiet, and suffers jaundice.

In August 1944, Polish resistance mounts the Warsaw Uprising. Szpilman watches the insurgents fighting from a window as a German tank shells his apartment. Warsaw is abandoned and Szpilman, entirely alone, searches desperately for supplies. He sleeps in an empty dental hospital and eventually makes his way to an abandoned home where he finds a can of pickles. While trying to open it he is discovered by Wehrmacht captain Wilm Hosenfeld (Thomas Kretschmann) who learns that he is a pianist and asks him to play on the grand piano in the house. The decrepit Szpilman plays Ballade in G-Minor, Op. 23, which moves Hosenfeld, who then allows Szpilman to hide in the attic of the building and regularly brings him food. As the German soldiers are forced to retreat due to the advance of the Red Army, Hosenfeld meets Szpilman for the last time and promises to listen to him on Polish Radio. He gives Szpilman his greatcoat to keep warm and leaves, which is almost fatal for Szpilman when he is shot at by Polish troops liberating Warsaw, who apprehend him and realize he is Polish.

Freed prisoners of a concentration camp pass an enclosure of German prisoners of war guarded by Soviet soldiers, and hurl abuses at them. Hosenfeld, now a prisoner, asks a violinist if he knows Szpilman, which the violinist confirms. Szpilman is visited by the violinist, who takes him to the site. However, all the prisoners have vanished along with any trace of the enclosure. Later, Szpilman performs Chopin’s Grand Polonaise brillante to a large and prestigious audience. An epilogue states that Szpilman passed away at the age of 88 in 2000, while Hosenfeld died in a Russian prisoner of war camp in 1952. (Wikipedia)

The Godfather I: Anjooran (N. N. Pillai), and his four sons Balaraman (Thilakan), Swaminathan (Innocent), Premachandran (Bheeman Raghu) and Ramabhadran (Mukesh) are in severe enmity with Anappara family for past decades. Anjooran never fails any chance to belittle Anappara Achama (Philomina). Anjooran and his sons also have a bitter hatred against women and the entry of women is prohibited into their house. While, the three elder brothers are ventured into business, Ramabhadran is a law student. At college, he along with his friend Mayin Kutty (Jagadish), tries all ways to humiliate Malu (Kanaka), the grand daughter of Anappara Achama, who is also his classmate. Malu gets engaged to a state minister, but the minister withdraws from the relation as Anjooran intervenes and threatens him of political consequences. Anappara Achamma hatches a plan to divide Anjooran’s family. She advises Malu to act as if she is in love with Ramabhadran and makes him turn against his father.

As per the advise of her grand mother she expresses her her feelings to Ramabhadran. With the encouragement of Mayin Kutty, Ramabhadran too acts as if he is in love with her. But with time, both develops a liking with each other. In meantime, both Ramabhadran and Mayin Kutty find out that Swaminathan is already married to Kochammini (K. P. A. C. Lalitha), a dance teacher and also has two kids. Swaminathan promises Ramabhadran that he will help in uniting him and Malu. Upon knowing about marriage Anjooran brutally beats Swaminathan. He throws out both Swaminathan and Ramabhadran out of the house for ever. Anappara Achamma is shocked to know that Malu is really in love with Ramabhadran. She along with her sons decides to get her married to Dr. Balakrishnan, son of their advocate. She sends her sons to Anjooran asking him to offer security at the marriage ceremony to stop Ramabhadran from marrying Malu, which Anjooran agrees. At the same time, she also approaches Ramabhadran informing him that she is willing to get Malu married to him. In reality, she was planning to get both Anjooran and Ramabhadran fight each other. But on the day of marriage, Ramabhadran, Swaminathan, Mayin Kutty and Kochammini dupes all and enters the marriage hall. They also successfully escapes from the clutches of goons and Ramabhadran enters on the podium. He, but refuses to marry Malu, saying that he needs his father’s permisiion to do that. He also makes Anjooran realizes about the wicked plan of Achamma to separate him with his father. Anjooran agrees for the marriage and blesses the couple. He then takes all to his house and throws away the board that denied entry of women to his house. (Wikipedia)

The Godfather II: Part II presents two parallel storylines. One involves Michael Corleone the new Don of the Corleone Family trying to hold his business ventures together from 1958 to 1959; the other is a series of flashbacks following his father, Vito Corleone, from his childhood in Sicily (1901) to his founding of the Corleone crime family in New York City. Click HERE to read the full synopsis.

In the town of Corleone, Sicily, in 1901, Vito’s father Antonio Andolini and his brother Paolo are killed on the orders of the local Mafia chieftain, Don Ciccio. Vito’s mother goes to Ciccio to beg him to let young Vito live. He refuses, saying that Vito will someday come back for revenge. Vito’s mother then holds a knife to his throat, sacrificing herself to allow Vito to escape, as Ciccio’s gunmen shoot her dead. With the aid of some townspeople, Vito takes a ship to New York City. Arriving at Ellis Island, an official registers him as “Vito Corleone” and he is quarantined for smallpox.

In 1958, Michael Corleone deals with various business and family problems at his Lake Tahoe, Nevada, compound during an elaborate party celebrating his son Anthony’s First Communion. Michael meets with Nevada Senator Pat Geary, who despises the Corleones. Geary, aware that Michael plans to gain control of another Las Vegas casino, demands a high price and kickbacks for a new gaming license, while insulting the Corleones and Italians in general. Michael coldly gives Geary his counter-offer: nothing.

Click HERE to read the full synopsis. (Wikipedia)

The Godfather III: In 1979, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) is nearing 60 and wracked with guilt for his ruthless rise to power, especially ordering the murder of his brother Fredo. By now, he has mostly retired from the Mafia, leaving the Corleone family’s criminal interests in the hands of enforcer Joey Zasa (Joe Mantegna), and is using his tremendous wealth and power to restore his reputation via numerous acts of charity. Michael and Kay (Diane Keaton) have been divorced since 1960, and Michael gave her custody of their children, Anthony (Franc D’Ambrosio) and Mary (Sofia Coppola).

At a ceremony in St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, Michael is named a Commander of the Order of St. Sebastian. At a party following the ceremony, Anthony tells his father that he is going to drop out of law school to pursue a career as an opera singer. Kay supports his choice, but Michael disagrees, wishing that his son would either finish law school or join the family business, but Anthony refuses to have anything to do with his father’s “legacy”. Michael and Kay have an uneasy reunion, in which Kay tells him that Anthony knows the truth about Fredo’s death.

Meanwhile, Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia), the illegitimate son of Michael’s late brother Sonny, shows up at the party. He is embroiled in a feud with Zasa, who has involved the Corleone family in major drug trafficking and turned Little Italy into a slum. Michael’s sister Connie (Talia Shire) arranges a “sit-down” between Vincent and Zasa in Michael’s study. The discussion erupts into a fight, in which Vincent bites Zasa in the ear. That night Vincent has a one-night stand with a journalist named Grace Hamilton (Bridget Fonda). Two men armed with knives and a gun break in and try to kill him. Vincent kills them both, but not before learning that Zasa sent them. Michael is troubled by Vincent’s fiery temper, but is nonetheless impressed by his loyalty, and agrees to take his nephew under his wing.

Click HERE to read the full synopsis! (Wikipedia)

Gladiator : In AD 180, General Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe) leads the Roman army to a decisive victory against Germanic tribes at Vindobona, ending a long war on the Roman frontier and earning the esteem of the elderly Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris). Though he has a son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), the dying emperor wishes to grant temporary leadership to Maximus, hoping eventually to return power to the Roman Senate. When his father tells him of the decision, Commodus, already bitter that Marcus favors Maximus over him, murders his father in a fit of rage and claims the throne.

Maximus realizes the truth about Marcus’ death, but is betrayed by his friend, General Quintus (Tomas Arana), who reluctantly instructs the Praetorian guards to carry out Commodus’ order to execute Maximus and his wife (Giannina Facio) and son (Giorgio Cantarini). Maximus manages to escape, and races home only to find he was too late to save his family. After burying them, Maximus is found unconscious by slave traders and taken to Zucchabar, a Roman city in North Africa. There, he is bought by Proximo (Oliver Reed), and forced to fight for his life as a gladiator in arena tournaments. During this time, he befriends gladiators Juba (Djimon Hounsou), and Hagen (Ralf Möeller). Juba tells Maximus to have faith that he will be reunited with his family in the afterlife.

Maximus proves a fierce gladiator; with nothing left to live for, he is fearless in the arena. He ultimately reaches the prestigious Roman Colosseum, where his group is contracted to fight in a tribute to the Battle of Carthage. Concealing his identity with a helmet, he skillfully leads a band of gladiators to defeat an opposing chariot and archer force, earning the crowd’s praise. Forced to reveal himself to a stunned Commodus in the arena afterward, the crowd votes to spare his life, and Commodus appeases them by doing so. Maximus later wins against the undefeated gladiator Tigris, as well as tigers released into the arena, yet refuses to obey Commodus’ command to perform the coup de grâce. As a result, he is declared “Maximus the Merciful” by the crowd, increasing his popularity and further frustrating Commodus, who cannot kill Maximus without making him a martyr.

Following the fight, Maximus is told by his former servant Cicero (Tommy Flanagan) that his army is still loyal to him. Maximus then conspires with Commodus’ sister Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) and the senator Gracchus (Derek Jacobi) to rejoin with his army and topple Commodus by force. Commodus, however, suspects his sister of betrayal and forces her to reveal the plot using veiled threats against her young son Lucius (Spencer Treat Clark). During Maximus’s attempted escape, Commodus’ guards attack Proximo’s gladiator school, killing Hagen and Proximo. Juba and the survivors are imprisoned, but Maximus makes it to the city walls, where he is captured after a failed attempt to save Cicero.

Desperate to get Maximus out of the way and prove his own greatness, Commodus arranges a duel with him in the arena. Unknown to the crowd, Commodus stabs a restrained Maximus with a stiletto before they enter the arena. During the fight, Maximus manages to disarm Commodus, while Quintus disobeys the emperor’s demand for his sword and commands his soldiers to do the same. Commodus then produces the hidden stiletto, but Maximus plunges the blade into Commodus’ throat, killing him.

With his dying words, Maximus carries out Marcus Aurelius’ wishes, calling for Gracchus to be reinstated, the slaves to be freed, and power to be restored to the Senate. As he dies, Maximus reunites with his family in the afterlife. Lucilla then reiterates his wishes and honors his memory. Some time later, Juba buries Maximus’ two small figurines of his wife and son in the ground where his friend Maximus died, promising to see him in the afterlife, “but not yet”. (Wikipedia)

Couples Retreat: Dave (Vince Vaughn), a dealer for Guitar Hero, and Ronnie (Malin Åkerman), a stay-at-home mom, are a typical couple with two young boys. They experience various stresses including redecorating their house and raising their sons. Joey (Jon Favreau) and Lucy (Kristin Davis) are high school sweethearts with a typical rebellious teenage daughter named Lacey. Their relationship is on the rocks. Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell) are a neurotic couple who’ve experienced multiple failed attempts to conceive, and Shane (Faizon Love), who has recently separated from his wife and has a much younger twenty-year-old girlfriend, Trudy (Kali Hawk).

At Dave’s son’s birthday party, Jason and Cynthia, using PowerPoint, announce their troubled marriage and that they are considering divorce because they cannot have a baby. As a last-ditch effort, they have found a couples therapy resort named Eden. A deal called the Pelican Package is half the normal cost if they can get three other couples to join them. In their presentation, they show beautiful pictures of sunlit beaches and beautiful locations. They also assure the others that the couples therapy is purely optional.

Dave and Ronnie discuss their inability to go because of childcare responsibilities and decline the trip. In the middle of the night their home security alarm is activated when Jason shows up unexpectedly to further sell the idea of the retreat. The commotion wakes the kids, who have overheard their parents’ conversations of not being able to go because of them. Fearing that their parents are contemplating divorce, the kids have already arranged for Dave’s father, Grandpa Jim-Jim (played by Vince Vaughn’s real-life father, Vernon Vaughn) to babysit so their parents can go to Eden.

The retreat proves to be divided into Eden West and Eden East. West is for couples and uses the tagline “Stay Together”. East is for singles and uses the tagline “Come Together”. East and West attendees are not allowed to intermingle.

Upon arrival at Eden West, the four couples are shown their villas. At dinner, Sctanley [sic] (pronounced “Stanley”), the resort host (Peter Serafinowicz), informs them that couples therapy, which starts at 6 a.m., is actually mandatory. If any couple fails to attend, it will be taken as an indication that they want to leave, and a refund for Eden will be given, although not for their airfare. The group debates what to do. After an indulgent dinner with many delicacies, they decide to put up with “a couple of hours” of therapy in order to enjoy the other amenities of the resort.

In the morning, each couple meets with an assigned therapist. All four couples learn that they have problems, even Ronnie and Dave, who thought they were fine. They endure resort owner Marcel’s (Jean Reno) unusual methods, including swimming with and feeding lemon sharks and yoga sessions with amorous instructor Salvadore (Carlos Ponce).

On the fourth night, Trudy escapes to Eden East. The other seven, encouraged by Joey who is unsatisfied with his marriage, leave to find her. Following an argument between Cynthia and Jason, the men and women split up. As they try to find their way to the resort, the men end up arguing and pointing out each others’ marriage mistakes.

The women run into Salvadore who takes them to Eden East. The men come across the staff lounge where they find Sctanley playing Guitar Hero. He threatens to report them to Marcel, but Dave challenges him to the game (without telling Sctanley that he is involved in the game’s production). Sctanley, after having lost the wager, directs them to Eden East, even though he knows he was tricked by Dave.

When they arrive, Dave realizes what a good thing he has with Ronnie. He goes with her to be alone at a waterfall. Joey finds Lucy with Salvadore and knocks him out, reuniting with his wife. Cynthia and Jason share drinks and end up becoming intimate. Shane runs into his ex-wife, who admits she still loves him. Shane tells Trudy to remain in Eden East and enjoy being single, then leaves with his ex-wife. All four couples return to Eden West.

Marcel, seeing that the couples have worked out their problems, frees them from the therapy and suggests they go jet skiing. (Wikipedia)

Warrior: The film opens with former U.S. Marine Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy) visiting his father, Paddy (Nick Nolte), a recovering alcoholic who has become a Christian. Tommy becomes angry about his father’s formerly abusive behavior and Paddy fails to convince him that he has truly changed. The next day, Tommy enters a gym where he beats a professional fighter named Pete “Mad Dog” Grimes (Erik Apple) unconscious in less than 30 seconds, in a fight which is filmed via a cell phone video camera and later uploaded to the internet where it goes viral. Tommy learns about a winner-takes-all mixed martial arts tournament called Sparta where the winner receives $5,000,000. In order to provide for the family of his fallen friend in the Marine Corps, Tommy asks his father to help him train for the tournament, but only under the condition that they do not try to reconcile their relationship.

Meanwhile, Paddy’s older son, Brendan Conlon (Joel Edgerton), a high school physics teacher and former UFC fighter, is struggling to financially provide for his wife Tess (Jennifer Morrison) and two daughters and faces the possibility of his home getting foreclosed. To increase his income, Brendan risks returning to his former profession as a mixed martial arts fighter battling amateur fighters for money. Rumors of Brendan fighting in the ring begin spreading amongst his students. The school’s Superintendant, objecting to his participation in such dangerous activities, suspends him without pay. Left with no other option, Brendan seeks the training of old friend Frank Campana (Frank Grillo) and begins competing in smaller venue fights. After the fighter Frank planned to enter into the Sparta tournament is injured during training, Brendan convinces Frank to enter him as a replacement.

After entering the tournament, Brendan discovers that Tommy has also entered. When the two brothers confront each other for the first time in 14 years, it is explained that Brendan chose to elope with his then-girlfriend Tess when he was sixteen years old instead of moving away from their father with Tommy and their mother, who later grew ill and died. Brendan claims that he has forgiven his father for the wrong he has done, but Tommy is unconvinced. He refuses to forgive Brendan for not leaving with him and for not being there when their mother was sick.

Meanwhile, the video of Tommy beating “Mad Dog” attracts the attention of a Marine in Iraq whose life was saved by Tommy months prior. The information and video of Tommy saving the Marine is shared with the press and Tommy becomes a national hero, gaining a massive fan base and appreciation with not only viewers, but with the U.S. Marine Corps as well. However, Tommy’s records surface from the Corps and reveal that he went AWOL from the military after his entire unit was killed in a friendly fire bombing. It is explained that Tommy took his mother’s maiden name as his own surname in order to evade arrest for his desertion, and that military police will take him into custody after the tournament is over.

Over the next few nights, Brendan and Tommy have contrasting fortunes: Tommy quickly and brutally knocks out his three opponents, while Brendan has a much tougher time, outmatched physically but utilizing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to force submissions. At the end, both brothers come face-to-face with each other in the final round and unleash all the anger they had towards one another. The fight between the two brothers shows Tommy having the upper hand initially, but Brendan manages to dislocate Tommy’s shoulder in an omo plata and traps him in a rear naked choke. While they both lie struggling on the mat, Brendan tearfully apologizes to Tommy and tells him that he loves him. After a brief hesitation, Tommy taps out. The film ends with the two brothers exiting the ring, Tommy in tears with Brendan’s arms around him, as their father watches them and smiles. (Wikipedia)

Blood Diamond: Mende fisherman Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) is captured by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels during a raid and subsequent massacre of his village in Shenge, Sierra Leone. Instead of cutting off his hands, the rebels put him to work as a diamond miner under the eye of warlord Captain Poison (David Harewood). Captain Poison uses the diamonds to fund their war effort. One day, Solomon recovers an enormous pink diamond while working. Hoping to keep it for himself, he buries it in a nearby riverbank; Poison discovers the truth, but before he can act, the Sierra Leonean Army assaults the mines. Vandy, the captain, and most of Poison’s fighters are captured and subsequently imprisoned in Freetown.

Meanwhile, Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), a white Rhodesian gunrunner, is arrested attempting to smuggle diamonds into Liberia. Archer had been transporting the diamonds to an Afrikaner mercenary, Colonel Coetzee (Arnold Vosloo), his former commander in the 32nd Battalion, the most decorated unit of the South African Border War. Coetzee is in turn employed by Tiara Diamond Company executive Rudolph Van de Kaap (Marius Weyers) and his deputy, Rupert Simmons (Michael Sheen). While being held in the same Freetown prison as Solomon Vandy, Archer learns of the pink diamond’s existence.

Archer manages to arrange his own release from prison. He also has Solomon freed, hoping that he will lead him to this valuable diamond. Solomon begins working at a hotel. Meanwhile, Captain Poison conscripts Solomon’s son Dia (Kagiso Kuypers) into the RUF, brainwashing him to make him a killer.

Archer visits his contacts in South Africa, including Colonel Coetzee. The Afrikaner is angry and frustrated that their previous smuggling operation was foiled. He demands that he receive some of the profits from this pink diamond. Danny remarks that he plans to use his share of the money to leave the dark continent. However, Coetzee disagrees, referencing a Shona legend that the soil of Africa is red because of all the blood that has been spilled by people fighting over the land. He implies that both of them will never leave Africa. Returning to Sierra Leone, Archer locates Solomon and offers to help him find his long lost family, especially Dia, if he agrees to lead him to the diamond. While they discuss the issue, RUF rebels launch a massive attack on Freetown. Archer and Solomon survive the initial carnage long enough to steal away from the ruined city by morning.

In Forécariah, Guinea, American journalist and humanitarian Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), allows Archer and Vandy to infiltrate the Kono with her press convoy in exchange for information on her current story exposing the flow of “blood diamonds” out of Africa. Archer offers proof to Maddy that Van de Kaap and his Tiara Diamond Company control the market by illegally stockpiling vast amounts of diamonds to simulate scarcity. The convoy comes under attack by murderous insurgents. The three narrowly escape and eventually find their way to an encampment where Colonel Coetzee and his private army are preparing for battle; the mercenaries now intend to get their hands on the diamond no matter who or what gets in their way.

Archer and Vandy eventually leave the camp while Maddy boards a plane evacuating foreigners out of the conflict zone. The duo reach Captain Poison’s diamond fields, which has been recaptured by the rebels. Solomon approaches Dia, who refuses to acknowledge his father. Archer calls the mine’s coordinates in to Coetzee’s forces, who subsequently launch an air strike on Poison’s men via an Mi-24 Helicopter Gunship. Amidst the chaos, Solomon finds and kills Poison with a shovel. As the outgunned and now leaderless RUF force tries to flee into the jungle, they are finished off by a mercenary strike team on the ground. With the battle won, Colonel Coetzee has Dia rounded up and holds him at gunpoint. He threatens to murder the boy unless Solomon retrieves the pink diamond immediately. Archer knows that the colonel is planning to execute Vandy and his son once he is in possession of the valuable stone. He preemptively kills Coetzee and two of his soldiers, only to be mortally wounded in the process. Dia then takes advantage of the situation to hold a pistol on his father and the injured Archer. After an emotional discussion, however, Solomon manages to convince his son of his own retained innocence and Dia agrees to return home with him, having overcome his mental conditioning.

The three of them flee from the remaining mercenaries and make their way from the valley towards an airstrip atop a nearby ridge where Archer has prearranged to rendezvous with a local pilot, Nabil (Jimi Mistry), in his GA8 Airvan. Before they reach the ridge, Danny collapses from his wounds and hands over the diamond to Solomon, instructing him to take it and use its profits for himself and the benefit of his family. Archer uses an assault rifle to hold off their pursuers as the two others escape in the plane.

Bleeding to death from his injuries, Archer uses his satellite phone to make a final call to Maddy Bowen and ask her to assist Solomon. Realizing that he is dying, Maddy expresses her sorrow that she is not able to be there with him in person. The Rhodesian smuggler replies calmly that he is already where he needs to be. He grasps a handful of red soil, stained with his own blood, and dies looking out upon the African landscape.

Shortly afterwards, Solomon meets with Rupert Simmons, who promises that the Tiara Diamond Company will arrange for his family to be brought to England in exchange for the diamond. Maddy secretly photographs the deal and later publishes a magazine article in which she exposes the trade in conflict diamonds, detailing Rudolph Van de Kaap’s criminal actions and ruining him. Later, Solomon is seen preparing to tell of his experiences at a conference on blood diamonds in Kimberley, South Africa. His entrance to the conference meeting hall is met with a standing ovation as the film ends.

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