Just see it.

Rating: Null/10 (15 January 2005)

Hotel Rwanda is a true story. Attempting to write a review of this movie seems pretty trivial, and can never do it justice. The bare facts are straightforward.
In 1994 in the central African state of Rwanda, approximately one million people, men, women, children and babies, were horrifically murdered by a savage and uncontrolled militia. It was an ethnic war, genocide, in which no one but a Rwandan could possibly have known who was who and why it was happening. The world stood by and let it happen. The foreigners and press fled, the UN did little. Amidst all the carnage and mayhem, one man, Paul Rusesabagina (marvellously portrayed by Cheadle), who had the very unheroic job of Assistant Hotel Manager, saved well over one thousand two hundred people from certain death by taking them into his hotel, and using his wits and his connections to keep the militia at bay and play one side off against the other, mostly with a combination of cash, booze and Cuban cigars. What started as an attempt to save just his own family, ended up in total heroism, and many, many people owe him their lives. The comparisons to Schindler's List are obvious.
What really surprised me, given the facts, is how little explicit gore there is in this movie, and I think it is a great credit to the film makers, that, by focusing on the emotions and relationships of the central characters, the movie accurately depicts the utter terror and desperation of the events, without forcing the audience to turn their heads from the screen in nausea. We are shown corpses, and the terror on the faces of innocent children, but little gut-wrenching special effects gore, thank god. This film is little short of a masterpiece and the performances are perfect. It should be compulsory viewing for everyone over the age of 14. I'm taking my teenagers next week.