Not surprisingly, you'll need to have some Kleenex nearby as you watch this film.

Rating: 10/10 (20 January 2014)

"Hotel Rwanda" is an incredibly sad sort of film. After all, during 1994 between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people were murdered--mostly Tutsis hacked to death due to an insane tribal rivalry with the more numerous Hutus. Genocide is not pleasant viewing. However, the film is a bit easier to watch than it could be, as most of the scenes of the slaughter are pretty tame. This isn't really a complaint--it doesn't deny the killings but it also doesn't show a lot of hacked off limbs and bodies (though there are quite a few of the latter). I appreciate how the MPAA changed their minds and re-rated the film PG-13 instead of R, as R would seem to imply that it's not a film for a wide audience. Folks should see this film.
Instead of "Hotel Rwanda" showing the violence in a general fashion, it focuses on a very brave man. Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle) was the man who ran the swank Hotel Rwanda around the time of the genocide. In a very brave move, he opened the hotel to the Tutsi (who were being massacred) and created a tenuous safe haven. However, when the UN pulled out (as the UN did what it usually does in these situations...NOTHING!), Rusesabinga had to learn on the fly to work with the ruling powers, the mobs and the few remaining UN troops (though most had left). Rusesabinga managed to not only save his family (his wife was Tutsi and children half-Tutsi) but 1200 people through his heroics. The film shows the way he connived and begged and worked to make this possible in the midst of Hell.
The film is a high quality and well made product. Not surprisingly it's on the IMDb Top 250 list and it also was nominated for three Oscars (including one for Cheadle who sure sounded African to my untrained ears). And, not surprisingly, it's an awfully tough film to watch. I don't recommend it for very young audiences but folks need to see this film and realize we have not come that far as a world. And, it's sad the film and other films about Rwanda during this period didn't come out until a decade after the massacres. It also makes you realize just how far from its original charter the UN has gone--it SHOULD have been able to take a stand against such evil.