Posted: 01/15/2005

Hotel Rwanda

(2004)

by Hank Yuloff

It is 1994. Rwanda has no oil, or other natural resources that are overly valuable to the West, so when a war breaks out, well actually, a massacre, between the two tribes that inhabit the country, nothing is done, and the manager of a 5-star hotel owned by Dutch interests does what he can to save the lives of 1268 people by offering them shelter at the property while working on ways to get them out of the country.

The short review: Easily one of the best three movies of 2004.

Don Cheadle plays Paul Rusesabagina, the House Manager for the Hotel Milles Collines in Kigali, Rwanda. He is a man who truly bought into the fact that other countries, more powerful countries, could and WOULD step in to stop tragic events in the world. In this case, it was in his own country of Rwanda that the genocide that occurred when leaders of the Hutu tribe decided the country would be better for them if all the Tutsies were gone. All this, even though it was virtually impossible to distinguish the members of the two tribes. Also amazing was that before the Dutch colonized the country, they had lived in peace together. The genocide was made all the more tragic by the fact that most of the world ignored the conflict, other than viewing the occasional reports of “tribal warfare” on their daily news broadcasts, after which, “they would go back to their dinners,” said Joaquin Phoenix, who plays an American cameraman in the city.

In telling Rusesabagnina’s story, Director Terry George has shined yet another light (see also Blackhawk Down, Welcome to Sarajevo) on the inhumanities to man that occur daily on our planet while the self proclaimed “compassionate conservatives” and “bleeding heart liberals” do little to stop them. The similarities to Schindler’s List are strong, and it seems that times of extreme chaos can still bring out the best in humans of all colors.

Director Terry George had Don Cheadle in mind for the lead part from the beginning of his involvement. During pre-production, potential investors and interested studios wanted Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes and even Mekhi Phifer because of their suggested bigger drawing capacity at the box office. But due to ultimately producing the film independently and coming up with the money himself, George was able to go back to his original choice. He appears to have had excellent instincts as Cheadle will definitely be nominated for one of those heavy golden statues. If he isn’t there is something wrong in Hollywood. Cheadle is not alone in acting excellence. Sophie Okonedo (Dirty Pretty Things), who plays his wife is wonderful. Nick Nolte stars brightly as the UN Military leader, not allowed to shoot, while keeping order with 300 soldiers for the entire country. His scene with Rusesabagnina, used in the trailers, telling him that no help is coming because the world does not care about blacks is a most telling indictment of society. Those comments played against the black against black killings going on just outside of the gates shows the absolute idiocy of racism.

The most telling comment I heard after the screening was “if only this movie could have been made faster while it was happening,” and “they should be telling us about what is happening in the Sudan this way right now.” Let’s hope Hollywood does not have to tell us about more things our leaders should have stopped.

Hank Yuloff is our senior staff writer living in Los Angeles.

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