Don Cheadle Was Robbed

Rating: 10/10 (1 March 2005)

I did not see this film before the Academy Awards ceremony. I wonder how many members of the Academy also did not see this film before the ceremony. Cheadle should have won the Oscar. Though fine work was turned in by the other nominees, Cheadle's performance was breathtaking. And heartbreaking.
The very few negative reviews I have read will compare this film to Schindler's List, which also deals with genocide. However, the analogy fails because: (1) Oscar Schindler was not a member of the targeted group; (2) The distinction between Hutu and Tutsi was completely arbitrary and artificial; and (3) The West had "intervened" in WWII.
That distinguishing feature--the West's intervention or lack of it--is doubly ironic: first, it was the West's meddling which had created the problem in Rwanda, both the colonial aspirations and later arming the factions it created. And second, the people we were saving from Hitler were mostly white. No truer words were ever spoken than the line delivered by Nick Nolte's character as an explanation for the lack of concern by the West: "You're African." This film was horrifying without being unduly grisly--a remarkable and commendable restraint for a film about a war fought mostly with machetes. And without further explanation (in case you haven't seen the film), I point out there is one particular road trip in this film as chilling as anything in horror films.
After about ten minutes into this film, I was thinking, maybe 8/10. By the end, it was a definite 10.