Hotel Rwanda
|
List Price: Our Price: $0.94 You Save: $14.04 (94%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.68 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Hotel Rwanda
Movie Review: How one man made a real difference in the Rwandan horror
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a powerful and moving film that tells the story of the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people through the attempts of one man to save a few from death by machete. It is not an effort to tell the whole story of the Rwandan tragedy, nor is it an attempt to shove our faces into the horror of what happened in those months of 1994. The protagonist is a simple hotel manager, a real person whose name is Paul Rusesabagina. He is an intelligent and resourceful man working at a four star hotel in Kigali. He knows how to use petty bribes to grease the wheels in order to get things done in this small and corrupt country. He is a Hutu and a member of the majority, but his wife and therefore his children are Tutsis and are part of the resented minority.
The movie doesn't spend much time explaining the dynamics of this situation except to point out that these distinctions are purely arbitrary and were created by the Belgians. There are rumblings on the radio and in the streets that a slaughter of the Tutsis is going to happen, but Paul does not believe them. The events erupt when the President of Rwanda dies in a plane crash and the agitators blame it on Tutsi rebels.
Paul has no intention of saving anyone beyond his family when this all begins. However, as it hits closer to home he makes noble choices and uses his skills in bluffing and bribery to keep his family and the ever growing band of refugees at the hotel alive. It is poignant how these people are abandoned to the mobs by the West, but also significant how their private campaigns to their well connected friends in other countries buys them time.
And the difficulty of working with those in the killing machine outside is not all there is, there are also those Hutus on staff that resent the Tutsis and buy into the lies urging them to exterminate the cockroaches. It is an awfully precarious situation that Paul is trying to keep from tipping into extinction.
The movie does show a few stark images without getting horribly graphic. Don Cheadle gives a wonderful performance and deserves his Oscar? nomination and probably should have one the award for this performance.
I think this is a movie that everyone should see and think about, especially with mature young people who need to know what happened not so long ago. Then we need to think about what is going on right now in the Sudan and write our representatives about what we think should be done to help end that horror. After all, that is really the point of this movie. We can stay uninvolved because it happens so far away, but it sparks our conscience to ask us if we should.
Movie Review: Haunting and appropriately focused
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not going to summarize the plot because many reviewers have done that already. I was touched by the story and the courage of Paul Rusesabagina.
In college I remember watching movies about South Africa including Cry Freedom and A Dry White season. Although I am not as familiar with Eucyn Palsy's work, I know from reading and hearing him speak that Sir Richard Attenbourough conceived Cry Freedom as an indictment of South African Apertheid and his target was white Western audiences who were unaware of what was happening. Sir Richard Attenborough's film was designed to spur the west into action and was both moving and original. The most chilling and powerful moments of the film was at the the end of the movie; he had a recording of Black South Africans singing about freedom while scrolling a list of all the people tortured and murdered by the South African police. As a filmmaker he hit you hardest at that moment with music and facts, no actors, dialogue or special effects; proof of his brilliance.
The problem is all the movies that followed about similar topics seem to stick with telling stories of African struggles from White African perspectives only. Hotel Rwanda shifts the focus and this adds a fresh perspective.
The main thing that makes Hotel Rwanda stand out for me is that this is the only film I have ever seen about African genocide, injustice or civil rights that focuses on Africans. In most movies the African people depicted are not shown as complex, intelligent and capable people.
Rwandans are the focus of the story they are the emotional center of this movie and portrayed as complex human beings. Paul Rusesabagina is shown as an intelligent resourceful kind and compassionate person who acts to save people during the Rwandan genocide.
This movie takes a hard look at what happened. It does not reduce Africans to caricatures or fall into the trap of portraying Africans as only noble and positive or gloss over evil of any one race or group. It portrays American and Western indifference openly and illustrates how inaction perpetuates and sometimes fuels evil. The movie also connects ethnic conflict with Africa's Colonial past and European economic interests. Most importantly it shows how the Rwandans had to find a way to survive when the west abandoned them; when no one came to their rescue they had to save themselves.
I think this was such an important film well worth owning on DVD; the horror of genocide is accurately depicted without a lot of gory violence so I think it could be shown to mature teens possibly tweens.
Movie Review: Incredibly moving true tale of one of life's real heroes
Summary: 5 Stars
In 1994 one of the most brutal acts of civil war occurred in Rwanda, Africa. It was genocide on the most horrific scale of our lifetimes, rivaled only by Hitler's regime in the 1930's. Hotel Rwanda is the true story of one man, hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, who managed to harbor 1,268 refugees inside the upscale hotel he managed until he could find a way to bring them all to safety behind the Tutsi rebel lines.
Though a peace treaty between the Hutu's and the Tutsi's was signed by the Rwandan President, only hours later the president was assassinated and the militia were given the signal to begin killing the "Tutsi cockroaches" that had once enslaved the Hutu's.
Hotel Rwanda is a 10 star movie, it left me breathless with its beautiful portrayal of bravery and courage, and crying from the brutality of a genocidal regime. Not since Shindler's List have I seen a movie with this much power and courage, enough to make even this cold-hearted reviewer break down and cry like a baby. When one single, everyday person shows this much valor and heroism in the face of utter hopelessness, it makes me believe in the human race again.
Although there is not much overt blood in this movie, there are scenes of violence so horrific that you will cringe in your chair and set aside your cup of hot chocolate. Hotel Rwanda is a tale of faith, hope, love, bravery, courage, violence, callousness, atrocities, and the shame of humanity. Only UN General Romeo Dallaire (renamed Coronal Oliver for the movie, and expertly played by Nick Nolte) stayed behind when all other industrialized nations fled the country and left over one million people to be butchered in the genocide.
The cast in Hotel Rwanda was incredible, with stellar performances by Don Cheadle playing Paul Rusesabagina, Sophie Okonedo playing Tatiana Rusesabagina, Desmond Dube playing Dube, Fana Mokoena playing General Bizimungu, and Joaquin Phoenix playing reporter Jack Daglish.
If there is one movie that everyone should see, it is this one. There are simply not enough good things to say about this movie and how incredibly moving it is, you will just have to sit down and watch it for yourself. I wound out buying it the same day I rented it, and have watched it over and over, my mouth still dropping open in amazement at how people can be both cruel and kind. Buy this one.
Also, I strongly recommend picking up a copy of 'Shake Hands With The Devil', the real account of Rwanda written by Romeo Dallaire, the UN General that stayed behind during the war.
Enjoy!
Movie Review: "We must shame them into sending help"
Summary: 5 Stars
"Hotel Rwanda" isn't about entertainment, but rather about past mistakes and lessons that the International Community must learn from them. Unfortunately, the price of some mistakes is too high...
In the case of the Rwandan genocide, the price of non-intervention was a million Tutsi victims, murdered by Hutus in 1994, while the International Community did nothing even though the UN had troops there. As one Colonel of the UN's forces (Nick Nolte) in the film said, "We are here as peacekeepers, not as peacemakers". Foreigners who happened to be in Rwanda could leave the country, whereas the Tutsis were left to die. That was quite ironic, actually, if we take into account that the division of the people in Rwanda between Hutus and Tutsi wasn't natural, but rather imposed by their European colonisers.
Rwanda was, at the time these events happened, a place where unlikely heroes were all that was left. One of them was Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), assistant hotel manager of a four-stars hotel and Hutu. His wife Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo)was Tutsi, though, and his children were considered Tutsis too. ... When mayhem began and Paul was left in charge of the hotel, he stepped up and started to hide there other Tutsis that had nowhere to go. "Hotel Rwanda" allows viewers to understand how difficult it was for Paul Rusesabagina to stay alive, and protect the people he took under his wing in a time when many armed Hutus wanted to kill the "cockroaches" (as they called the Tutsis).
Watching this movie is quite striking, as it is based on a true story. Paul Rusesabagina exists, and he ultimately managed to save more than 1200 people from certain death, taking them to a safe haven. His arms were bribes, contacts, and calls he and the other "guests" of the hotel made to acquaintances living abroad, telling them what was happening ("We must shame them into sending help").
You can learn about all that in this outstanding movie, directed by Terry George. Moreover, you can watch the real protagonists of this story in two of the DVD's bonus features, "A Message for Peace: Making Hotel Rwanda" and "Return to Rwanda", and know what really happened, in their own words.
All in all, I highly recommend this film. Too often, when we read about massacres like this in books, they seem abstract, something that doesn't necessarily affect us. That isn't true, but what is going to make us realize that?. "Hotel Rwanda" can do it, and I think that is a reason more than good enough to watch this film.
Belen Alcat
Movie Review: Shelter from a Storm of Blood
Summary: 5 Stars
Movie: ***** DVD Transfer: ***** Extras: *****
So very few films can be truthfully and accurately described with such lofty phrases as `heart-wrenching' or `transcendent'. "Hotel Rwanda" is one of them. It tells the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, the manager of a five-star hotel in Rwanda during the genocidal massacre of the minority Tutsis by the Hutus in the 1980's. Rusesabagina put his own life in jeopardy to play a complicated game of strategy in order to save his family and neighbors - and 1,200 strangers he sheltered in his hotel - from being brutally slaughtered, simply because he felt in his heart that it was the morally right thing to do.
The film's power comes primarily from two sources. The first is the screenplay, which unfolds its story without unnecessary theatrics; the story it tells is dramatic and harrowing enough that artificial embellishment is not needed. The second pillar of the film is Don Cheadle's amazing performance as the hotel manager. Here is an example of screen acting at its most sublime. Cheadle literally disappears into his character and plays it straighforward, from the heart; he is rarely off the screen, and never strikes a false note during the two hour running time. He has one particular scene, played alone, in which his character reacts after-the-fact to an earlier crisis; without doubt, it is among the finest pieces of acting ever captured on film. It is a testament to their abilities as performers (and Cheadle's generosity as an actor) that Sophie Okonedo, Nick Nolte, and Joaquin Phoenix are able to shine so brilliantly in their supporting roles; this is Cheadle's movie all the way, and he is magnificent.
The DVD transfer of this incredible film cannot be faulted. The visuals are perfectly rendered and the soundtrack, which is so important to the film's emotional impact, is flawless. The extras include two incredible documentaries, one about the making of the film, and the second about the return of the real Paul Rusesabagina to Rwanda for the first time since he and his family settled in Belgium. There is also a very perceptive audio commentary track; as well as a limited, scene-specific commentary by Don Cheadle which is fascinating indeed. In addition, the disk features the Original Theatrical Trailer for this film and half a dozen other M-G-M releases. Captivating, astonishing, and both inspirational and horrifying, "Hotel Rwanda" is a movie that should - and richly deserves - to be seen.