What will Bill Clinton think?

Rating: Null/10 (8 January 2005)

This film, appearing roughly 10 years following the genocide in Rwanda, has important implications for anyone interested in international affairs today. Among other themes, it portrays the West's schizophrenic attitude toward what was happening in the country accurately through the characters played by Nick Nolte (Colonel Olivier), and Joaquin Phoenix (Jack). As others have written, Don Cheadle's complex acting performance as the manager for Sabena's flagship hotel turned refugee camp in the capital city Kigali, is both sensitive and powerful. But the real question here is: how many Americans will want to see a film about this subject? If more people do, it would decrease the possibility of the next potential genocide being disregarded as "not involving US strategic interests." One wonders what (former) President Bill Clinton will think when HE sees Hotel Rwanda, knowing what his role in history might have been had he and other world leaders acted to forestall the killing in time.
The film necessarily omits lots of things related to actual history, such as the neighbor-on- neighbor group psychosis that produced the vast amount of physical and psychic damage in the country. And the oversimplifications concerning the history of inter ethnic violence in the Great Lakes region is unfortunate but understandable.
However, on the balance the film will bring many viewers to the issue for the first time, and will help them understand why the challenges facing Rwanda in 2005 concerning national reconciliation and justice remain tragically elusive. In an age when we expect pushbutton answers to Tsunamis and genocide, this film shows why some problems take time, energy and tremendous creativity to solve. This is a very good thing.
See this film, and tell others to see it. Bravo to writer/director Terry George and writer Keir Pearson for making it. Just don't take the little ones -- while the actual blood and gore is kept to a minimum, the PG-13 rating is very generous, considering the general subject matter.