Hotel Rwanda Review

Hotel Rwanda Review:
Africa should not be left to itself anymore
Lee, Haesoo

What happens in the African continent was a faraway issue to me. I was only vaguely aware of it as an uncharted vast land where various types of wildlife lived, and where I could only see on a documentary. Through Hotel Rwanda, a movie which was directed by Terry George, however, I realized that political corruption has been rampant, and horrible wars among a lot of countries have continued in the continent. Ashitaka (2007) said that the movie is basically about tensions between the Hutu and Tutsi people who led to a war in Rwanda. It criticizes people who are desensitized to violence. With the summary of the movie, my analysis will focus on Paul Rusesabaginna who is the hero in the movie, the problems with western-viewpoints pointed out by other reviewers, and also my view on the implied meaning in the film clips and lines.

This film captures the unimaginable violence of genocide which takes place in Rwanda located in the central part of Africa. The story is told by Paul Rusesabagina, the main character in the movie. He is a Hutu and manager of The Hotel Mille Collines located in Rwanda’s capital city of Kigali. On April 6th 1994, it was discovered that Rwanda’s Hutu president had been assassinated by Tutsi soldiers. The rumor caused that the Hutu army and the militia immediately set about systematically slaughtering the minority Tutsi. Because Tatiana Rusesabagina, who was the wife of Paul, was a Tutsi, this forced him to gather his family into their vehicles and flee to the hotel. During the tensions, Paul put his own life on the line by protecting not only his wife and children but also other Tutsi refugees from being killed. Although United Nations troops were dispatched, they were only permitted to use their weapons in self-defense. While the rest of the world closed its eyes, Paul opened his heart and proved that one good man can make a difference. In the end, he sheltered 1268 Tutsi and Hutu refugees at the hotel.

Paul Rusesabagina and Don Cheadle (Characteristics of Paul Rusesabgina)

Paul is a very wise man who plays many different roles throughout the film. According to Roger Ebert (2004), "Paul is the kind of man who knows how things work in the real world; he uses his skills of bribery, flattery, apology and deception to save these lives which have come into his care." From this script, Hwang (2011) analyzed that the main character values the principles of capitalism as being more important than nationalism because he knows that it is silly to take part in the genocide with trivial feelings of anger. However, I think otherwise. The reason why he bribes with money and gifts to gentry is always to protect his family, neighbors, and his country, not to buy favor with flattery. It is evidenced through some of the scenes; the people staying in his hotel follow his direction to lead them to survive, even when his family gets the exit visa to leave the country safely, he stays behind to watch over those who are left at his hotel.

Hutu and Tutsi genocide in Rewanda

The movie is very highly regarded for its realistic image showing the problems with the view of the imperialists toward the natives. A review by Lee and Gu (2007) criticized the movie in that it repeats a partial point of view: Hutus as assailants, Tutsis as victims.  Like their review, it is apparent that Hutus committed random rape, slaughter, and their army is corrupt in this movie without consideration to their historical background. They were also repressed by Tutsi during Belgian colonial rule. The Belgian government supported Tutsis political power because they have lighter skin than Hutus. As a result of this, Europeans came to believe that Tutsis had Caucasian ancestry, and were thus superior to Hutus. After Rwanda was decolonized by European powers, Hutus started to excite riots in order to work off a grudge. in the movie They are portrayed as a cruel ethnic group out of this historical context.

Why are western people often shown as heroes in movies?

Park (2006) pointed out that western people are shown as humanitarians in the movie: an American volunteer who stood against Hutu militia, A UN colonel who insisted on staying until the bitter situation’s end. These characters come from the chauvinistic viewpoints of western people. However, I retort upon his comment. The movie appears to describe them as saviors overall, but I think that the movie director seems to indirectly criticize their lackadaisical attitude through some scenes and scripts. When the colonel explained why the world does not intervene, he said “Hutu and Tutsi are black, not even niggers. They are Africans.” He helped to get only his nationals out. Moreover, the colonel told reporters that his troops were ‘peace-keepers’, not ‘peace-makers’. These scripts imply that the western people assumed the attitude of an onlooker about the war. Through Paul’s lines, the critical tone is clearly evident. “There will be no rescue, no intervention force. We can only save ourselves. You must call influential people abroad. Let them know that if they let go of that hand, you will die” He also stated, “We must shame them into sending help” (Paul, 2004). As the movie is watched by people in the world as well as western people, it awakened people to feelings of guilt from  ignoring and looking on with folded arms about the Rwandan war.

The movie was created by stirring of hatred on two ethnic groups after the Western colonial era for Africa. Moreover, it implies that Africa should not be left to itself anymore. In a magazine interview director Terry George (2004) said that he wanted cinema audiences to feel a collective shame about how the world has treated Rwandans and abandoned them. He added “Apathy is also a sin” (The behind story of Hotel Rwanda, para.8). I reflected deeply because I am one of the people who said they are horrible and continued eating my dinner, watching a lot of bloody conflicts on TV; I paid no attention to terrible scenes including the 9/11 collapse of the World Trade Center andMuammar Gaddafi’s corpse left to rot in an old meat store. These are things that seemed surreal to me until I watched ‘Hotel Rwanda’. It represents my insensitiveness about violence. The movie tapped into my moral sense.