Movie Review: Hotel Rwanda

In my International Politics class we read a book about Rwanda, it was called "We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families." by Philip Gourevitch. It was a sad story about the genocide that took place in Rwanda, a small african country. The story that Gourevitch told was not nearly as personal as the one told in the Movie Hotel Rwanda. In the book, he recounts stories that he was told and things he read. The movie tells the story of Paul Rusesabagina, the house manager at a prestigious hotel in the capitol city of Kigali, during the events of 1994. Paul used his position as Hotel Manager to save 1200 Tutsi and Hutu refugees from being slaughtered at the hands of the Hutu militias. The power of his personal story (he consulted on the movie) made me wanna cry. Paul showed that even amid ruthless hatred shown by terrible people, the power of human charity is not lost. Most people would not have risked everything to save even few, but Paul did everything in his power to save 1200 souls. What a powerful example to us all.

The movie was well made even beyond it being a great story. Don Cheadle leads a wonderful cast, and gives a powerful performance. The world looked on with a blind third eye as nearly a million people died in that small country, and it makes me feel ashamed for the world. During World War II no one knew what Hitler was doing with all the Jews until after. During Rwanda, the worlds leaders knew exactly what was going on, people had called and written letters telling of the horror, but no one cared. The sad truth was that the leaders of the free world, supposed good men and women, stood by and did nothing while Evil prevailed. Eventually the Tutsis were able to stop the killing themselves and push the Hutus out of the country, but what a price they paid...1 million people, 1 million of their brothers and sisters; 1 million of their husbands and wives. No country should have to pay that kind of price for something that could have been stopped easily. Freedom has a high price, but they paid too much because we stood by and watched.

I was 14 years old when this happened. During that time, I got sick and nearly died, I was in the hospital for 4 days and then in recovery for months. I did not hear anything about Rwanda until I got into College and read about it. But I still ask myself the question that everyone should be asking themselves: "If I did know about it, or if it happens again, what will I do?" Will you do the right thing this time? Will you learn from others' mistakes? I hope so, or the world truly is lost.