Don Cheadle gives a riveting performance as Paul Rusesabagina, the manager of a European-owned hotel in Rwanda, who created a secret refugee camp for the Tutsi people during the... more
This review already contains more than 120 words. As a Ciao member you could earn up to £5 with this review.
Hotel Rwanda
Solidly built around a subtle yet commanding performance by Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda
... more
emerged as one of the most highly-praised dramas of 2004. In a role that demands his quietly riveting presence in nearly every scene, Cheadle plays real-life hero Pau...
Hotel Rwanda
Solidly built around a subtle yet commanding performance by Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda
... more
emerged as one of the most highly-praised dramas of 2004. In a role that demands his quietly riveting presence in nearly every scene, Cheadle plays real-life hero Pau...
Advantages: A true story of heroic proportions. Disadvantages: That it happened at all.
...Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle) is the hotel manager of the Milles Collines a Belgian owned hotel in Rwanda. When civil war breaks out between the Hutu And the Tutsis (the two main tribes). The Hutu want to wipe the Tutsis from the face of the earth because when the Belgians colonised Rwanda they gave the best jobs to Tutsis and let them rule the country. Now that the Belgians are gone the Hutu who regard Rwanda as their land want revenge, which is stirred ... ...Okonedo) a Tutsis, uses the hotel to shelter both Hutu (not caught up in the fervour) And Tutsis Refugees, He manages this by both bribes and influence. As the hotel fills with men, women and children Paul try's everything he can to keep them safe using money and whiskey to keep the local Hutu general on side in order to keep the rebels away and frantic phone calls abroad pleading for some kind of intervention.
The UN who are led by the sympathetic ...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Superb acting, deeply moving story Disadvantages: It really happened and we all let it
...Rusesabagina likes his job as hotel manager and is a good husband and father to wife Tatiana and their three children. When a politically active friend of his warns him that the Hutus are ready to rise up against their neighbours, the Tutsis, he dismisses it as war talk. Little does he know that everyone's worst nightmare is about to happen and thousands of Tutsis are to be slain. Paul is forced to shelter his family and neighbours in the hotel where ... ...is when he leaves the hotel to find supplies and finds himself in the midst of a sea of bodies - all dead - men, women and children - and I utterly believed that I was watching a man in denial of what was in front of his face. Superb.
Paul's wife, Tatiana, is played by Sophie Okonedo, and again is superb as a woman terrified for her family. Some of her best moments are when she is trying to find news of her brother and sister-in-law and their children ...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Excellent performances by Cheadle and Okonedo, compelling (if disturbing) subject matter Disadvantages: Not quite the classic it could have been
...The story revolves around hotel House Manager Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), a Hutu married to Tatiana, a Tutsi (Sophie Okonedo) who finds himself helping over a thousand refugees. He is not portrayed as a saintly figure by any means - in fact, his pragmatic and astute businessman persona reminded me very much of Schindler (indeed, the situation bears more than a few similarities to events preceding the World Wars, with an assassination sparking ... ...a Hutu working at the hotel who doesn't share Rusesabagina's tolerance of the "cockroaches", as the Tutsis are termed by the Hutu radio; a Red Cross worker; the President of Sabina, the Belgian company that owned the hotel, and an army General who helped Rusesabagina but not for any altruistic reasons. In fact, Rusesabagina surrounds himself with important people and pampers to their every whim in order to store up favours for his family if he ever ...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Hotel Rwanda is a disturbing film to watch, much like the yesterday's news that it reports. I remember when my father was watching the new reports of Kosovo and the Racak Massacre in 1999, and how the horrifying events and the actions of these "evil men", as he called them sent him further into depression, just by watching the news. I think that watching Hotel Rwanda has had a similar effect on me. It is a film that has put me at the forefront of ... ...by Don Cheadle), a Rwandan Hotel owner who becomes a humanitarian hero in the midst of Rwanda's civil war in 1994. As the political turmoil of guerrilla warfare and an assassination of the president ignites the old racial divides between the Hutus and the Tutsis of Rwanda, the Hutu-ran state armies and interwhami militia begin an ethnic cleansing of all their Tutsi neighbours. Paul (who is a Hutu, but shares marriage to Tatiana, a Tutsi woman with ...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Hotel Rwanda is one of the best true story's I have ever seen.
It really does show you the horror and misfortune that goes un-noticed in some parts of the world.
-------------
Plot Outline
-------------
The story tells you of the worst genocide in African history, which took place in the country of Rwanda. Over a million people have been slaughtered in just a few short months, and no help is forthcoming. One man, a hotel manager plucks up the ... ...own family, by using his hotel as a refugee camp. Battling against incredible odds, with little help from the army, and his family and friends being murdered all around him, he is the only hope the refugees have. But time is running short, and death is knocking on every door.
------------
My Thoughts
------------
The movie is truly gripping with some most disturbing drama of events that you just won't believe could happen. It's a huge eye opener ...
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Actor(s): Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Nick Nolte, Joaquin Phoenix
Director(s): Terry George
Genre: Drama
Classification: 12 years and over
Running Time: 1 hour 57 minutes
Video Category: Feature Film
Plot: Tells the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, the man who refused to ignore the atrocities suffered by the people of Rwanda. As the violence escalated and innocent people were slaughtered, Paul opened up his hotel to offer shelter to the thousands in need.
Release details
DVD Region: Region 2 (Europe)
Studio(s): ENTERTAINMENT IN VIDEO; CINRAM LOGISTICS
Release date: 25/07/2005
No of Discs: 1
Catalogue No: EDV 9314
Barcode: 5017239193149
Screenwriter: Terry George, Kier Pearson
Producer: A. Kitman Ho, Terry George
Languages
Main Language: English
Subtitle Language: English
Technical information
Special Features: Feature Length Directors Commentary, Don Cheadle Selected Scenes Commentary, A Message For Peace Making Hotel Rwanda
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, Dolby Digital Stereo Surround
Dubbing Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround English<br>Dolby Digital Stereo Surround English
Ciao
Listed on Ciao since : 11/10/2005
DVD Description
Don Cheadle gives a riveting performance as Paul Rusesabagina, the manager of a European-owned hotel in Rwanda, who created a secret refugee camp for the Tutsi people during the brutal genocide committed against them by the Hutu people in 1994. His efforts helped to save 1200 lives out of close to a million who were killed. HOTEL RWANDA shows this man's courage, while also capturing the political events that occurred between April and September '94. First, United Nations soldiers are restricted from fighting back against Hutu guerillas, even after the Rwandan president is assassinated and the country is thrown into chaos. But as the fighting worsens, all non-Rwandans including UN peacekeepers, Europeans, and Americans are evacuated. This leaves the Tutsi people defenceless against aggressive Hutus who are armed with machine guns and machetes. While working the system with strategic phone calls to powerful international contacts of the hotel, Rusesabagina also uses smart lies and power plays to hold off the Hutus. The morale among the refugees is low, but because they are protected from the inconceivable brutality happening outside the hotel's gates, they maintain a sense of hope. Powerful acting from all cast members, including throngs of children, makes this film touching and believable. Sophie Okonedo offers moving support as Rusesabagina's wife Tatiana, Nick Nolte shows knowing machismo as an American UN officer, and Joaquin Phoenix turns in a heartfelt display as a TV journalist. But it is the delicate treatment that director Terry George gives the insane, helpless situation depicted in HOTEL RWANDA which makes the film so penetrating. While the violence and gore of the genocide play a disturbing part in the film, the focus lies on the heroism of its protagonist and the strength with which he navigates under seemingly impossible odds.