Hotel Rwanda (2004)

Hotel RwandaTicking for around 2 hours, the material offered to the audience is concrete and interesting enough to invest and this is where it excels as it demands attention from the first frame hitting hard and fast. The screenplay writer and director, Terry George might be the weakest link in this feature for it needed a better execution. And on performance side, Don Cheadle has got it covered and doesn't even require any support for he is capable and does carry it all on his shoulder. Hotel Rwanda; if excels on explicit writing and stellar performance, the objective somehow seems a bit distracted as it fails on captivating the audience and create the anticipated drama on screen.

Hotel Rwanda is by far my favorite movie out of all of the ones we have seen. Being the third time I have seen the movie, I was able to pick up things that I did not understand my first or second time around. This movie is American made so we get the happy ending that we do not usually get in this class. The film uses great camera angles. For example I remember seeing a pan of all the dead bodies. Horrible sight to see but very well filmed. I understand that the UN has the job of keeping peace but they should have done more earlier in the film to help the Tutsi. The UN is a lot more helpful towards the end of the film rather than the beginning of it. It is very mind blowing how the Hutus just wanted to wipe out all of the Tutsi just because they were different than them. Tsotsi are smaller, lighter colored and also referred to as cockroaches. I believe that the world should be ashamed of what happened in Rwanda. None of the superpowers helped at all. It makes no sense that America did not intervene because we stick our heads in literally everything. Not many people really even know about this genocide in America and I feel like it has to do with the fact that we did not help them. If we would have helped them everyone to this day would know but because we did not we keep it secretive.

Overall I really enjoyed this movie. I thought that the actors, some who are famous did a really nice job by acting out exactly how the people in Rwanda were feeling during the Rwandan genocide. Although this is not a foreign film, it is very educational, because one who has never really heard about what exactly happened during the Rwandan genocide or know anything about it, can learn something new by watching this film. I particularly liked Paul the best in the movie as he was also one of the main characters. He took the risk, by taking in refugees that were going to get killed, and let them stay in his hotel, which I thought was a very audacious thing to do. I really liked the way that he cared for the other Rwandan people, since he was the one to step up to save them. There are many things that I enjoyed about this movie like, the way it was filmed, and the scenes and emotions that the people showed, but it would have been even better if this film showed the effect that the Genocide had on the Rwandan population and the younger children. This film stressed Paul as a heroic character, not only did he protect his family, but he protected others. I thought this was a great movie, and based on this reasoning I would give it a 5/5 .

Hotel Rwanda was a well- made film, with some famous actors. It was interesting to see Hollywood actors in a film that seemed foreign, although it wasn't. I did not know very much about the Rwandan Genocide, or the history of other Genocides. Overall, I liked this film, but it was definitely not my favorite because I did not understand it as much as I did the other films; I found myself lost during some parts. My favorite character was Paul because he was so determined. Paul was such a big part in this movie, since he showed that he was not only a good person and hero to his family, but those living in the hotel.His issues made my stressors and issues in my life feel like nothing. Not only was dealing with the genocide, but he was living in the middle of it, AND had to manage an entire hotel! Although it was not his fault by any means, It must've killed him to see all of the families and their children sleeping in the hallways of his hotel every time he was trying to get by them. He must've felt some responsibility and guilt for them having to sleep on a cold floor, especially since he had a wife and children of his own he probably thought of when he saw these people. I also liked his wife, Tatiana a lot as well, because she was so devoted to Paul, and she seemed to keep him in line. I liked that she was a loving wife and mother, but also was not afraid to die for her kids or Paul, since she was so tough. Although we saw struggles of both Paul and Tatiana through their eyes, I would've liked to see more of the kids' struggles and how THEY viewed what was going on. I kind of wish that there was more interaction between the kids at the hotel and Paul and Tatiana's kids, because they were a big part in the movie too since they were so vulnerable. The difference in this movie compared to most of the others, was that there was not violence in the sense that the community was so troubled such as guns and gangs, but because of war and the genocide. So what is the crime really like in Kigali, Rwanda? The crime that is most prominent today is theft and vandalism, at a rate of about 36%, which is considered low.Next, at a rate of 26%, is drugs and people dealing drugs. Violent crimes are less common than petty theft. Interestingly, violent crimes are less likely to happen to a foreigner than a local, as well! A study done in 2015 shows that there has been an increase in robbery in homes, but it mostly happens when people are not in them. Overall, Kigali is a pretty safe place, compared to the other countries in the films we have watched.