Hotel Rwanda

Hotel Rwanda Review

            Hotel Rwanda is a film about a man named Paul Rusesabagina who was a successful manager of the mille collines hotel in Rwanda. Before the genocide started Paul was a stand up man. He was liked and respected by majority of his staff and had a couple important people who he could ask for favours. When the genocide begins Paul does all he can for his family to keep them safe. His wife Tatiana is a Tutsi, so that means that the Hutu extremists are looking to kill her and the kids. Paul being a Hutu would have made him a little bit less of a target, but he does everything he can for his wife and kids, which would still make the extremists want to kill him.

            Paul takes action by getting his family and a couple fortunate others to the hotel he was working at. However before they get there some soldiers capture them and a couple of their neighbours. The soldier in charge gives Paul a gun and tells him to shoot them all. Instead, using quick thinking he bribes the soldier with all the money he had on him, plus more when they got to the hotel. It works and now Paul is responsible for protecting, feeding and sheltering more than 1000 refugees. While there are UN soldiers at the gates trying to keep the people safe, Interhamwe militia have set up barricades just outside of the hotel. This are getting chaotic and even some of the staff have stopped working because they are scared, and think that Paul can’t do anything for them anymore. Then another soldier, maybe a lieutenant, comes into the hotel and demands to see the guest list on the computer. After Dube, Pauls assistant tells him that more than half of the files have been taken out the lieutenant is just about to order his men to kill everybody in the hotel. Once again Paul uses quick thinking and his connections to get them out of the mess.

            I really like Paul as a person. Even if only half of the things he did in the movie were true, he is still the most selfless and compassionate man i know of. Giving up all of his money and taking on the burden of keeping that many refugees safe is something that not many people would have done. The average person would have worried about their family and that’s it. While caring about his family deeply Paul has managed to keep many more family in tact by letting them stay in the hotel. When the UN starts to take out only white people and western natives, Paul openly accepts many more people into the hotel, he starts to think about the options he has and how wrong it is that they are leaving the rest of them to die. The UN eventually gets them all out of the hotel by using massive trucks, but the interhamwe still make it difficult for them to leave.

            I would say overall this movie is great. Aside from not having enough of the facts about the genocide any more just focusing on drama, this movie is exciting and has you on the edge of your seat cheering for Paul hoping that he gets out okay.