A movie that arrived from Netflix this week was Hotel Rwanda. After spending the morning working yesterday, I decided to take a break and watch it. I now understand why the movie received such praise when it was released a couple of years ago. I was at turns impressed by Don Cheadle’s performance as Paul Rusesabagina and shocked and saddened by how cruel mankind can be to one another.
The story is set in Kigali, Rwanda, in the 1990s when bloody fighting broke out between the Hutus and the Tutsis. Rusesabagina, who was Hutu but married to a Tutsi, was a hotel manager. That position led him on an unexpected path to heroism. Using bribes and what little influence he had after the fighting broke out, he was able to protect more than 1,200 refugees (Tutsis and moderate Hutus) inside the hotel. But he wasn’t able to protect everyone. If you’ve watched the news in the last decade, you’ve likely seen the stories of how approximately a million people were killed in the fighting. The images in the movie are powerful, and one small line spoken by a news cameraman played by Joaquin Phoenix says so much. “I’m so ashamed.” This line is spoken as all of the whites are ushered out of the country, leaving all the Africans behind to fend for themselves.
Despite all the daily news coverage of the horrible atrocities throughout the world, it still continually amazes me how people can hate so much and kill just because someone is different. It’s beyond my comprehension. If you’ve not seen Hotel Rwanda, I urge you to watch it. While you may very well cry at times, there’s also a message of hope — that there are people, ordinary people, who can rise to the occasion and do what’s right in the face of so much wrong.
And like any well-done movie, there are lessons to be learned by writers. After you’ve watched the movie, think about how the writers and directors made you feel a certain way, how they framed scenes. Then consider how you can take that knowledge and weave it into your own work to make it more powerful.
January 26th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Trish,
I saw this movie last year and cried buckets. I made DH watch it and he was depressed the entire night. He doesn’t like sad movies, even when the endings are happy.
Don Cheadle was astonishing in this. The man never ceises to amaze me. The understated way he played that character made his brief breakdown (when he was alone in that room) all the more powerful.
January 26th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
I totally agree. It was a great performance. I thought Sophie Okonedo’s was wonderful too. My DH doesn’t like sad movies either. He’s more of a comedy guy. I was talking about this movie at Curves today, and another lady there said she works with a woman who fled Rwanda. Her parents were killed during the fighting.
January 27th, 2007 at 6:35 am
I loved this movie!! I was super impressed by Don Cheadle, too.