Finially the massacre in Rwanda has been brought to the world's attention, only 11 years too late.

Rating: 8/10 (18 May 2005)

Hotel Rwanda is one of those few cinematic masterpieces that you can recant over and over in your mind, to your families, friends and educators. The movie depicts the desperate situation of a nation torn by civil war and genocide between two major tribes in 1994. However the main focus of the movie deals with a hotel manager who desperately tries to save his family and refugees from the slaughter occurring beyond the hotel property. Normally I am aggravated when a director goes out of his way to give his film a pg-13 so preteens can see it, thus increasing profit. however this movie's rating is highly justified. Everyone deserves to see and care about what had happened in Rwanda, because the world leaders and media at the time of the atrocity certainly did not. With the recent production of numerous WWII movies, the holocaust has been brought to light while the Rwandan genocide had been swept under the the rug, until now. Done Cheadle did a superb job in his role that made me feel like i was right there with him. He is very under-rated and i feel he can out-act even the best such as Denzel Washington. Nolte plays a Canadian UN field leader who is obviously modeled after the Canadian war hero Romeo Dellaire whom attempts to bring the crisis to the international authorities' attention and in return tragically gets his squad of UN peace keepers reduced. This only adds to the desperation of the situation. The movie touches on the personal lives, politics, religion and culture of Rwanda during this short but dark chapter in human history. Much of those who were able to change the outcome of the situation at the time deserve to be shamed by this movie. So many times has society claimed that genocide will never happen again, but i think what society really means is that it will never happen to "white" people again. Such a statement can draw this review allot of criticism, but I feel it taps into the darkest part of the human soul where self denial and racism are clearly present. Hotel Rwanda deserves all the accolades it receives and will be shown in homes and classrooms for years to come. My hat's off to the production team, the cast and the crew to bring such a turbulent, dark, short, yet important era of human history to the forefront of the media world.