Hutus, Tutsis, Serbs, and Croats

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2005)

1993 -- Milisovec and his genocide programs bring tears to the world's eyes. Cries for US involvement mount as the Croat and Muslim victims of Milosivec are given increasingly human faces by US media. Looking at the faces, a single frightening thought strikes many of us at once. The Serbs are trying to exact the ultimate penalty from the Croats who they consider lower in God's food chain than cockroaches. Yet, to our eyes, the two "races" are indistinguishable. Still, as heartbreaking as this is, it took years for us to actually take action.
Now, take these same faces, paint them black, and put them in a part of French North Africa with which the English-speaking press and the US has little familiarity in a country whose name is spelled strangely. The Genocide is being implemented at a rate comparable to the recent tsunami. This is scary stuff, and we have no natural side and no history. Tutsi? Hutu? We can't tell the difference between them, and we don't care. Is this genocide or just more tribal warfare in Africa? Some Blacks killing some other blacks. Why would this be the business of the US? This is much closer the Killing Fields than it is Schindler's List in terms of the West's abandonment being central to how it played out. The Tutsi's were scapegoated and slaughtered so quickly, it was easiest to simply right off our losses and live to die another day. Small but powerful bits are contributed by the sincere-yet-ineffective Colonel played by Nolte and the wise-guy-macho newsman Jack played as appropriately impertinent by Joaquin Phoeenix.
Don Cheadle certainly we worked hard for the nomination. He is in practically every seen and the movie moves on his energy.
Sophie Okodengo matched him scene for scene in honesty, confronting torture, and summoning up one final breath when the brain is working as a slow trickle at best, hope had all but died, and you can't remember when you last slept. I think she is magnificent and will win a must-deserved Best Supporting Actress Oscar even though she's a relative unknown.
Cheadle's performance is the best lead in an historical drama since Paul Scofield essayed Sir Thomas Moore in A Man For All Seasons -- which in turn was the best ever. And, Cheadle's assignment was even harder in many ways. He needed to blend an everyman-side with his heroically extraordinary conscience side with a con-man side, then expertly add in impeccable timing with whistling-past-the graveyard humor and dashes of theater of the absurd. One additional thing I'd like to underscore is that Cheadle's Paul is NOT everyman. He has extraordinary intelligent, and excellent facility with people and intermarried and intermingles among tribes freely and openly in a society that had never truly accepted such boldness. But, he tries to deal with most people with the humility of an everyman because he understands it is the best way to be.
Unfortunastely, Academy dynamics being what they are, it is most likely that Okodengo's Oscar will have to serve for both of them, because it's Clint Eastwood's year (forget DiCaprio). And, like Joaquin Phoenix's Jack at the bar, Academy voters will have trouble not confusing Don Cheadle with Jamie Foxx. I don't mean this as a specific knock at the Academy. It is simply the nature of this particular beast.
Terry George already entered the recesses of truth within my breast and my brain with In The Name Of The Father. That marvelous film also dealt with injustices and holy wars promulgated in the name of irrational fear and hatred masquerading as patriotism. He illustrates here how he can immerse himself in the brutal realities of the unfortunate with even greater singlemindedness to create an even higher-quality movie.
As others mentioned, he also did a great job conveying the horror of the atrocities occurring without assaulting our senses with violence as Gibson did in the Last Temptation of The Christ. The scene where it dawns (quite literally) on Cheadle why George directed him, "Take the River Road; it's clear" conveys more horror and sorrow in its way while still managing to spare the audience its dignity. The movie also did a good job of demonstrating that seldom do the people who wind up being the perpetrators of unconscionable acts look or act like monsters when we meet them. The dynamics of the situation take a life of their own and suddenly transform otherwise good people into committing monstrous acts.
Most Highly Recommended: 10 out of 10.