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HOTEL RWANDA Send This Review to a Friend
One never knows where a hero can emerge. One such real-life hero was Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager in Rwanda who risked his own life trying to save the lives of others and those of his family during the genocidal slaughter in 1994, when some 800,000 people were massacred as Hutus hunted down Tutsis. Director Terry George, with a script that he co-wrote with Keir Pearson, has told that story. Thanks to the powerful acting by Don Cheadle, the heroic Rusesabagina has been personified in this deeply moving drama.
Rusesabagina was in a key position when the slaughter broke out. He was managing a luxury hotel, and he had important connections. The film depicts him as one who has been quietly wheeling and dealing for his own status and that of his family. There is a measure of illusion as to how important he would be when the chips were down. When the crisis begins, his humanitarianism is put to the test, and he pushes the envelope as far as he can in an almost impossible situation. There are just so many who can be saved during mass killings. About 1200 have been credited to his rescue effort.
But every step of the way is harrowing. A wrong look, a snap judgment or just the circumstance of the moment can result in death. The slaughter is being conducted by blacks against blacks. What will authorities of the United Nations do? It falls to Nick Nolte playing the frustrated United Nations officer, Colonel Oliver, to convey the racist news that a rescue will be confined to saving foreigners.
Although “Hotel Rwanda” unfolds as high-powered drama, it has the air of a documentary because the events seem so very real. The filmmakers show just enough of the violence and its results to convince us of the horror taking place. Fear comes from the tension, not from being overly explicit. “Hotel Rwanda” is a poignant cry against this sort of mass murder being tolerated again. But the bleak human rights record of world response offers little hope that the situation will not be repeated elsewhere. A United Artists release.
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