A damn fine movie
You know, while compiling my recent post on movies I had seen, I inadvertantly omitted one of the best films I've seen in a quite a while ... Hotel Rwanda.
Now, I'll be honest - it was brutal to watch. Not so much for the violence - there is actually minimal blood in the film - but for the content and situations presented in the story. And it becomes that much difficult to watch when you realize it's based on a true story.
Short version of the film:
The Hutu militia, which is not officially the army in Rwanda, but is more or less given free run by the country's government, begins a systematic extermination of the rival tribe, the Tutsis. Both groups had been feuding for years following the Belgian colonization of Rwanda, and it bubbles over when the Hutu ruler of the country is killed - allegedly, but never proven - by Tutsi rebels. The Hutu (which, by the way, control the radio stations and all day, every day, spew hateful rhetoric against the Tutsi) then launch a genocidal campaign to kill off all the Tutsis (known as 'cutting the tall trees') and the entire country spirals into anarchy. Tutsis are dragged from their homes and hacked by machetes in their front yards. Special attention is paid to the children, as the Hutu militias work to eliminate the next generationof Tutsis.
The movie focuses on the efforts of Don Cheadle's character and his family (he is a Hutu, his wife a Tutsi). As the manager of a well-known and very posh hotel run by some French company, his hotel is one of the few safe havens in the country. It's overflowing with foreign (white) visitors and even had a U.N. contingent there which had worked to foster a peace deal between the two groups prior to president's death. Cheadle pays for his family's life, and - over time - the lives of more than 1,000 Tutsi refugees to stay in the hotel. All the while, he is confident that someone from the West would come to help ... and when they come to take only the white, foreign dignitaries, Cheadle's faith is rocked.
Since I don't want to give too much away, I'll just say that it truly was an incredible movie. I cried at three different points in the movie, and then for a solid five minutes after the film went ... hard. I don't even know why I was crying (though I was thankful that the wife was in bed at the time), but I suppose it was just hard to process all of that in two hours.
During the Rwanda genocide, more than one million people were killed in just three months ... and it went unnoticed by the rest of the world. And I'm not harping about international assistance in terms of sending troops - though I believe we should have sent an international peacekeeping force - but also from help from non-profit, non-governmental, charitable agencies. Only the Red Cross stood fast throughout the crisis, and they faced threats each day.
Cheadle's character at one point, feeling lost and hopeless, just says 'no one cares ... we don't have oil, we don't have diamonds, we don't have banks.' And sadly, that's the perception when it comes to African aid. I don't have all the answers, but I do know the answers to fighting the poverty, the disease, the hopelessness on that continent are out there.
I just hope we find them soon enough.
Now, I'll be honest - it was brutal to watch. Not so much for the violence - there is actually minimal blood in the film - but for the content and situations presented in the story. And it becomes that much difficult to watch when you realize it's based on a true story.
Short version of the film:
The Hutu militia, which is not officially the army in Rwanda, but is more or less given free run by the country's government, begins a systematic extermination of the rival tribe, the Tutsis. Both groups had been feuding for years following the Belgian colonization of Rwanda, and it bubbles over when the Hutu ruler of the country is killed - allegedly, but never proven - by Tutsi rebels. The Hutu (which, by the way, control the radio stations and all day, every day, spew hateful rhetoric against the Tutsi) then launch a genocidal campaign to kill off all the Tutsis (known as 'cutting the tall trees') and the entire country spirals into anarchy. Tutsis are dragged from their homes and hacked by machetes in their front yards. Special attention is paid to the children, as the Hutu militias work to eliminate the next generationof Tutsis.
The movie focuses on the efforts of Don Cheadle's character and his family (he is a Hutu, his wife a Tutsi). As the manager of a well-known and very posh hotel run by some French company, his hotel is one of the few safe havens in the country. It's overflowing with foreign (white) visitors and even had a U.N. contingent there which had worked to foster a peace deal between the two groups prior to president's death. Cheadle pays for his family's life, and - over time - the lives of more than 1,000 Tutsi refugees to stay in the hotel. All the while, he is confident that someone from the West would come to help ... and when they come to take only the white, foreign dignitaries, Cheadle's faith is rocked.
Since I don't want to give too much away, I'll just say that it truly was an incredible movie. I cried at three different points in the movie, and then for a solid five minutes after the film went ... hard. I don't even know why I was crying (though I was thankful that the wife was in bed at the time), but I suppose it was just hard to process all of that in two hours.
During the Rwanda genocide, more than one million people were killed in just three months ... and it went unnoticed by the rest of the world. And I'm not harping about international assistance in terms of sending troops - though I believe we should have sent an international peacekeeping force - but also from help from non-profit, non-governmental, charitable agencies. Only the Red Cross stood fast throughout the crisis, and they faced threats each day.
Cheadle's character at one point, feeling lost and hopeless, just says 'no one cares ... we don't have oil, we don't have diamonds, we don't have banks.' And sadly, that's the perception when it comes to African aid. I don't have all the answers, but I do know the answers to fighting the poverty, the disease, the hopelessness on that continent are out there.
I just hope we find them soon enough.
posted by Jmac at 8:54 AM
1 Comments:
Dude, haven't you heard about the big "Live Aid II" concert thingy this summer, or whatever it's gonna be called? "End Poverty Now" or something like that is supposed to be the message. See, we do have the answers right now...
I am planning on seeing Hotel Rawanda myself, sooner rather than later.
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