Hotel Rwanda

pc

Just watched last week. I completely agree with you Excellent! I had my kids 10/14 watch it with us.

Then my son went to school the next day and had an opportunity to speak in front of his whole school because they had an assembly about people hurting and picking on each other. Believe it or noet my son said a JW girl stood up and spoke about being picked on for not celebrating holidays. I was shocked because it is a private school and I never imagined a JW would be there.

Sam the Man

Madness. I feel sorry for witness kids which I why I am trying hard to wrestle them away from my witness wife.

I dont think anybody who watched that film who has the slightest bit of human emotion couldnt watch without a gulp coming to the throat. You see how it works, the people are divided, therefore, easily ruled. Once they were one, then the European powers divide and rule the people.

Jourles

I liked Cheadle in it. It was a Rwandan version of Schindler's List.

Sam the Man

Thats what I thought, but Swindlers list only saved Jews, whereas this man saved both Hutu and Tutsi. I dont know, but I'm wondering if this film got any oscars? One thing is for sure in hollywood, make a film about the Holocaust and get yourself an oscar.

tetrapod.sapien

ya, it rocked my world. i know it's just a film, but it partly changed the way i view the world.

stevenyc

I recommend everyone to see this film. Five stars!

www.hotelrwanda.com:

A MODERN GENOCIDE

The Rwandan conflict of the 1990s marked one of the bloodiest chapters in recent African history. The genocide was made all the more tragic by the fact that most of the world chose to ignore the conflict and the plight of the Rwandan people. While occasional reports about "tribal warfare" in Rwanda were carried by international news agencies, the horror of the conflict, instead of causing international outrage, seemed to be written off as another "third world incident" and not worthy of attention.

Over the course of 100 days, almost one million people were killed in Rwanda. The streets of the capital city of Kigali ran red with rivers of blood, but no one came to help. There was no international intervention in Rwanda, no expeditionary forces, no coalition of the willing. There was no international aid for Rwanda. Rwanda's Hutu extremists slaughtered their Tutsi neighbors and any moderate Hutus who stood in their way, and the world left them to it.

"Ten years on, politicians from around the world have made the pilgrimage to Rwanda to ask for forgiveness from the survivors, and once more the same politicians promise `never again,'" says director Terry George. "But it's happening yet again in Sudan, or the Congo, or some Godforsaken place where life is worth less than dirt. Places where men and women like Paul and Tatiana shame us all by their decency and bravery."

Wars have always provided fertile ground for the emergence of heroes and supreme acts of heroism by ordinary people. Rwanda was no exception. Amidst the horrendous violence and chaos that swept the country, one of the many heroes to emerge was Paul Rusesabagina, an ordinary man who, out of love and compassion, managed to save the lives of 1268 people.

Terry George had long been interested in doing a film set in Africa, but it was Paul Rusesabagina's story that finally brought him to the continent. "When my co-writer Keir Peirson introduced me to the story, I immediately knew I wanted to do it," says George. "I flew to Belgium and met Paul and learned of his life: how he became a hotelier, how he rose through the ranks of employees in the various Sabena hotels he worked in, and how he ended up at the Hotel Mille Collines in Kigali."

It was the remarkable human element of the story that struck a chord with Hotel Rwanda producer Alex Ho. "This story is very close to my heart, and it's the kind of story I really appreciate," he says. "It's about a normal man who, when prompted by his wife, is able to use his position to help others. In the course of doing that, he sets out on a journey that makes him a better man."

Sam the Man

I am glad you guys agree. Tetrapod, I totally agree with you, it also changed my outlook - something that a film very rarely does for me since I know the power that the guys at hollywood have over masses of people through film...but this was a genocide, it happened, it was factual, it can be proven, so it touched me.

FlyingHighNow

I haven't been brave enough to see it. I have to be in the right emotional state to see films like this one. I have seen documentaries on Rwanda though.

Eyebrow2

I was shocked because it is a private school and I never imagined a JW would be there.

My best friend when I was in the dubs sent her daughter to private school. They lived in a town with a really crappy school system. My friend sometimes got snide remarks from a few at the KH about wasting money sending the girl to a private school. So silly....unfortunately the private school didn't do the girl much good, because she is still a JW hahah.

Anyway....my thoughts are similiar to Flyinghigh's. I am not ready to see it yet. I know I want to, and I should, and I watch my 14 year old to watch it with me. There are some movies I just know will upset me, no matter how important what they have to say.

I avoid holocaust films nowadays...got my fill in the 80s and 90s. I never say Schlinder's list, and have no desire too. I think it has been rehashed enough in hollywood. You could have holocaust movies for years and years and not every angle or story will be covered. But I think it is time to focus on more recent incidents and other groups. I too, think that some people in hollywood seem to push the holocaust movies just Oscar fishing. (Funnily enough, on the BBC/HBO show "Extras" Kate Winslet, playing herself said about the holocaust :"It was grim...we get it!")

Hotel Rwanda

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