Monday, July 04, 2005
Hotel Rwanda
Kristen and I rarely see movies during their initial run, as we have a two year old daughter. We wait and watch films when they become available on DVD. Last night we saw the fine film Hotel Rwanda.
The movie documents the extraordinary and true story of one man's resourcefulness and bravery during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. This man personally saved over 1,000 citizens who were about to be slaughtered. Time had faded some of my memory of this massacre, but the movie walked a did a good job of portraying the horrors of that time without getting too gory to watch.
The United Nations and United States for the most part sat on the sidelines and watched this genocide take place. My recollection is that the US had just withdrawn from Somalia, and the citizens and leadership had little desire to initiate another peace establishing invasion. In retrospect, I think most citizens would agree it was a mistake not to intervene while one million Rwandans were murdered.
Don Cheadle is one of the best actors working, and he gave a stunning performance in this film as Paul Rusesabagina. So did Sophie Okonedo as Paul's wife Tatiana. Both were worthy Oscar nominees.
If you have not seen the film, please consider watching it. There are important lessons to be learned by our past mistakes.
The movie documents the extraordinary and true story of one man's resourcefulness and bravery during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. This man personally saved over 1,000 citizens who were about to be slaughtered. Time had faded some of my memory of this massacre, but the movie walked a did a good job of portraying the horrors of that time without getting too gory to watch.
The United Nations and United States for the most part sat on the sidelines and watched this genocide take place. My recollection is that the US had just withdrawn from Somalia, and the citizens and leadership had little desire to initiate another peace establishing invasion. In retrospect, I think most citizens would agree it was a mistake not to intervene while one million Rwandans were murdered.
Don Cheadle is one of the best actors working, and he gave a stunning performance in this film as Paul Rusesabagina. So did Sophie Okonedo as Paul's wife Tatiana. Both were worthy Oscar nominees.
If you have not seen the film, please consider watching it. There are important lessons to be learned by our past mistakes.
