John austin
While America was transfixed by O.J. Simpson and his low-speed chase in a white Ford Bronco, the worst humanitarian tragedy since WWII was taking place in Rwanda.Don Cheadle excels as the Hutu manager of a Belgian luxury hotel who does whatever is necessary to save as many people as possible while a Hutu militia, largely incited by government radio, engage in an unrelenting slaughter of Rwanda's Tutsi minority. Cheadle and the people he is trying to protect hold out in the hotel protected only by a small contingent of UN troops led by Nick Nolte, whose number one order is to avoid a firefight with the locals. Cheadle effectively balances diplomacy and bribery to keep the Hutu warlords out of the hotel and to buy precious time for him and his people to ride out the massacre. The film accurately portrays the total failure of the "world community" to take action that could have prevented the massacre of hundreds of thousands. The UN and other organizations have detailed files and reports of this occurrence that can be read on line by anyone who is interested in this. In those files you will learn there was a similar incident there in 1970 that claimed 100,000 lives. They're real good at writing up reports after the fact, but they were useless in preventing or limiting this tragedy. That's essentially what this movie tells us as well.
jb_campo
In the face of true human evil, Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle) stood up and said Not on my Watch. Cheadle plays the real-life role of hotel manager during the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi sect people by the Hutu sect majority. At the beginning of the film, before the killing starts, you learn that people were arbitrarily assigned to one of the two sects based on physical characteristics, which makes the killing even more unbelievable.Hotel Des Milles Collines is the one place of refuge in the middle of mayhem once the genocide starts. Cheadle uses guile, tactics, stalling, bargaining, bribing, begging, every tool in his toolkit to try to save as many as he can. Reminiscent of Schindler's List, Hotel Rwanda shows what one compassionate man can mean to so many others' lives when he's the only one that can do anything.Rusesabagina loves his family, and that is portrayed over and over again, especially in many heart-wrenching scenes with his wife when he tells her what she must do if death comes near them.Tension, plot, great acting, despair. Nick Nolte is terrific as the UN peacekeeper leader who has guns but no mandate or authority to use them. Excellent acting by the evil General and the evil supplier. The way the Director Terry George portrays the carnage, especially the river road scene, will stay with you for a long time. Genocide never makes sense, is never understandable to the sane person, but never has it been so palpably seen as in Hotel Rwanda. thankfully the Hollywood ending is actually true. If you have time, watch some of the special features where the real Paul Rusesabagina talks about the reality of that time. This movie will restore your faith in good people doing amazing things when faced with evil. Enjoy.
Elinor
Overall I really enjoyed this movie. I thought that the actors, some who are famous did a really nice job by acting out exactly how the people in Rwanda were feeling during the Rwandan genocide. Although this is not a foreign film, it is very educational, because one who has never really heard about what exactly happened during the Rwandan genocide or know anything about it, can learn something new by watching this film. I particularly liked Paul the best in the movie as he was also one of the main characters. He took the risk, by taking in refugees that were going to get killed, and let them stay in his hotel, which I thought was a very audacious thing to do. I really liked the way that he cared for the other Rwandan people, since he was the one to step up to save them. There are many things that I enjoyed about this movie like, the way it was filmed, and the scenes and emotions that the people showed, but it would have been even better if this film showed the effect that the Genocide had on the Rwandan population and the younger children. This film stressed Paul as a heroic character, not only did he protect his family, but he protected others. I thought this was a great movie, and based on this reasoning I would give it a 5/5 .
Pablo
For starters, I really enjoyed watching this film. The first time I watched it, about 4 years ago, I didn't really pick much up from it. The second time I watched it (this time), I understood so much more and the movie left a much greater impact on me this time. I never really knew there was a genocide in Rwanda, or in any countries really except for the Holocaust. This really opened my eyes about third world countries and in how horrible of a condition most are. One thing I really enjoyed about the film was production quality in general. It has definitely been the highest quality movie we've seen so far in my opinion, aside from films like City of God. I also liked how there were some famous actors in this movie like Jean Reno and Don Cheadle. I feel like these actors helped the movie a lot in terms of how many people would go see it. Since people want to see movies with the actors they like in it, why not make the movie about a serious global issue to bring more eyes to it? There weren't many things I did not like about the movie, if any at all. I felt like some of the not famous actors didn't do the best job, but they still made the movie great. I really liked in the end how Paul and his family found the lost kids of their family friends and how he adopted the entire group almost of lost kids.
AD
