Hotel Rwanda is a powerful and gripping movie made all the moreso because it is based in a reality so ugly and violent and, worst of all, recent. I very rarely feel any emotional connection with a movie. They are just a series of bits meant to entertain and that is how I like it; an escape. However, at times, a movie will draw me in and actually draw an emotional response from me. Typically, I just find joy in movies. Hotel Rwanda evoked anger and sadness. This movie is more than just a brief history of the struggles of the citizens of Rwanda - it is a commentary on our worlds politics and the nature of man. To tell a long story in one word - ugly.
I mourn for the million Rwandan men, women, and children who died senseless deaths due to bigotry and hatred based on a cultural divide that was forced upon a people by early Dutch settlers and propgated over the centuries. In one scene in the movie, that seemed kind of forced, a news cameraman (played by Jaquin Phoenix) asks to Rwandan ladies if they are Hutu or Tutsi. The first responds Tutsi the second Hutu. Jaquin's character seems baffled because, quite frankly, there is nothing about either that seems to separate them - they are simply two beautiful women sharing time over drinks at a bar before the troubles begin. One day later the Tutsi is in fear for her life simply because that was how her ancestors were categorized.
The movie is full of painful scenes and difficult choices for the main character Paul Rusesabagina, played by Don Cheadle, that force him into even more painful circumstances ranging from seeing his countrymen kill one another to fearing his family has commited suicide and to believing a good friend has been murdered. Paul is a hero for what he does in the face of these incredible horrors. Too often the word hero is thrown around to anyone who survives a horrible encounter. Paul Rusesabagina is a hero not because he survives but because he thrived in the face of adversity and through his own actions helped save the lives of over 1000 people who otherwise would have been senselessly slaughtered.
If you only see one movie this year, and you haven't seen Hotel Rwanda yet, let it be this one. It is a riviting story about an atrocity that happened just in the past decade but whose truths were only recently exposed to most people outside of Rwanda.
RATING10