Album Reviews
Movies
Concert Reviews
Movie Resources
Concert Reviews
Book Reviews

Top 10
Resources
Contact Us

Hotel Rwanda might as well be called Hotel Cheadle as this is Don Cheadle’s film all the way. The Kansas City actor portrays a man who is dedicated to service and finds his niche in hotel work. It is 1994, and his country, Rwanda, is in the midst of civil war, which is turning into genocide. Cheadle, as hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, is thrust into the midst of it. War has been going on for years between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes and this is bitter, indeed, as power goes back and forth between the groups, with the Hutu currently in control. 

Hotel Rwanda is based on the true story of Paul Rusesabagina who took in refugees from the conflict and harbored them at the lush Hotel Des Milles Collines in the capital city of Rwanda, Kigali. Paul, who won’t go anywhere without a freshly ironed shirt and suitable necktie, is the epitome of class. Paul is Hutu, but his wife  (Sophie Okonedo) is Tutsi and therein lays the problem.  She is now the enemy. The world turns its back on Rwanda and the UN troops, lead by Nick Nolte, aren’t supposed to shoot, only be "peacekeepers."  Joaquin Phoenix in a cameo role is a photojournalist who gets pictures of bloodshed and manages to send them out to the world. The hotel is crammed to capacity with people who can’t leave because Hutu troops are everywhere and ready to kill them. Situation Critical.

A film like Hotel Rwanda lets us see that countries with internal strife aren’t always in the Middle East. When asked to explain the difference between Hutu and Tutsi, one military man pauses to think and then says, “The Hutu have a narrow face and longer nose.” When asked for a list of hotel guest’s names (some may be Tutsi names), Paul brings out a list two weeks old and full of American names. Paul uses bribery to get supplies to the hotel. Cigars and alcohol work well with military leaders and one leader tells Paul to “take the river road back to the hotel, it is a smoother ride.” Paul and his driver go through the fog, encountering a bumpy road.  When they stop to investigate, they discover the road is covered with dead bodies. 

Don Cheadle inhabits the role of Paul Rusesabagina, who has to bury his own fears and put on the face of comfort and leadership to his family, his hotel staff and the guests (Paul refers to everyone under his jurisdiction as a “guest”). Director Terry George wisely lets the camera rest on Cheadle and follow his facial expressions. His eyes speak volumes. Hotel Rwanda has a PG 13 rating, but it could be “R” for scenes of violence. In a way, Hotel Rwanda is sort of a Schindler’s List in miniature. 

Hotel Rwanda may just give Don Cheadle an Oscar nomination for 2004.  His work here is stellar and so is the rest of the cast, including Sophie Okonedo as the wife who just happens to be Tutsi in the land of Hutu.

Copyright 2004 Marie Asner
Submitted 12/13/04

Ten years ago, almost a million people in Rwanda were slaughtered during a four-month span. Though Western leaders knew what was happening, they chose to do nothing. The promises of "never again" that people uttered in response to the Holocaust were found to be utterly empty. Apparently genocide is acceptable if it happens in Africa. Even today, the seeds of genocide are being sown in west African nations like Liberia and Nigeria, and in southern Africa locales such as the Congo, and all the West will do is cluck its tongues and wring its hands.

It is especially appropriate, then, during this Oscar season that a movie about Rwanda is finally showing up in theaters. Hotel Rwanda is based on the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, who was a manager of a five-star hotel in Kingali, Rwanda and who sheltered hundreds of refugees during the carnage. The violence was based on long-simmering feuds between the Hutus and the Tutsis. The German and then the Belgian colonizers had pitted the ethnic groups against each other, and the hatred only intensified after independence in the early '60s. The spark that set off the conflagration was the assassination of a prominent Hutu general. Many have speculated that the assassination was the work of Hutu extremists who were anxious for any sort of justification. In any event, the Interahamwe militia soon began killing Tutsis by the thousands.

Rusesabagina was himself a Hutu, but his wife Tatiana was a Tutsi, as were all of her relatives. When the violence first started, Paul was able to move himself and his extended family into the hotel. The hotel was largely protected because of the heavy presence of white Europeans, but Paul was also able to call on many connections in the Hutu hierarchy. As the weeks went on, more and more Tutsis sought refuge. But when the Europeans were evacuated (under United Nations protection), hundreds of refugees were left with only Paul standing between them and certain slaughter.

Don Cheadle plays Rusesabagina in a marvelous performance. His sense of powerful dignity is especially compelling, and he commands the camera with old-fashioned screen presence. We believe this is a man who could both eat with powerful generals and navigate his way through the rough neighborhoods of Kingali. Adding his star power to the movie is Nick Nolte, who plays Colonel Oliver, the primary UN commander in Rwanda. The UN peacekeepers were later vilified for their lack of action during the genocide, but Oliver comes off as an admirable if hamstrung character. Though he'd like to intervene, the major nations of the UN refuse to give him any authority, and all he's allowed to do is escort white Europeans to the airport.

Director Terry George plays up this irony beautifully. There's a crushing scene when a group of French priests and nuns accompany a huge throng of refugees into the hotel compound. The priests and nuns (who are mostly white) are allowed to board a bus for the airport, while their African charges are forced to stay behind. Shooting in a daytime rainstorm (and based on actual European television footage), George captures in a microcosm the horror of how Western nations abandoned the Africans who so desperately needed their help. In a bitter image, the black hotel workers hold umbrellas over the white tourists as the latter board the bus and the former stay behind to face almost certain death.

Hotel Rwanda isn't all despair, however. George knows that he's making a Hollywood film, and so much of the movie focuses on the romance between Paul and his wife (Sophie Okonedo). Filmed with an emphasis on close-ups, these scenes almost make us forget what's happening outside the hotel walls. The manipulative musical score only adds to that sense of isolation. And by focusing on Paul, his immediate family, and a group of orphans, George is even able to give an approximation of a happy ending, a decision which seems both out of place and misguided.

Nonetheless, it's difficult to imagine any mainstream film showing us the horrors of what happened in Rwanda. That Hotel Rwanda accomplishes this and more is testimony to George's devotion to the project and a deep desire shake us out of our complacency. While the film doesn't explicitly point to contemporary events in Sudan, the Congo, and Liberia, it hopefully will challenge Western audiences to consider what's happening in Africa and take action.  

J. Robert Parks 12/24/2004