Movie: Hotel Rwanda

Hotel Rwanda

I finally got around to watching Hotel Rwanda this past Saturday night. It has been sitting at our house for a month, waiting for someone to watch it. Last summer, I wanted to see it at the theater, and I never made it. Now, I've finally seen it.

I like just about everything I've seen of Don Cheadle.
Nick Nolte portrayed a U.N. general. I think I've seen better work by Mr. Nolte, but the character he portrayed in the movie was inspiring nonetheless.

Unfortunately, the DVD did not have subtitles. This was discouraging, because I had trouble understanding the dialogue, which was in heavily accented English. I'm sure I missed a signifcant part of the dialouge because of this, and because of the facts that it was late at night and the audio on our DVD player/TV combination is not that great.

I was struck by the idea that Mr. Paul Rusesabagina, the protagonist, did not try to be a great man, or even a morally good man. He simply did what he thought best as he encountered each new challenge. He didn't set out to try to save thousands of Tutsis, but this is what he ended up doing. It wasn't his goal, but because of his strength of character and underlying goodness, it was the effect of his actions. He was obviously a humble man. His primary concern was his family, yet he constantly found himself in a position of being responsible for the safety of other people. At one tense moment in the movie, he must choose between going with his family and staying behind with hundreds of others in need of his help. At the last possible moment, he chooses the latter, and it visibly tears him apart inside.

The movie has a line in which Mr. Rusesabagina says that "we must shame the west into helping us." As this line is uttered, it was hard for me not to feel shame. Such atrocities are committed around the world, and in most cases they are just a news clip to the affluent west. We send our donations to church and mission organizations, as long as they don't cost us too much. I guess I'm lucky to have been born in the United States--a condition I almost constantly take for granted. I didn't do anything to "deserve" being born here. I am lucky, I guess. And that feeling gives me some shame, when I compare it with those that are "unlucky" enough to be born in "hot" spots such as Rwanda of the early 1990s.