Hotel Rwanda

[MXR]

I saw the trailer and was interested in what people thought of the movie, I haven;t seen, nor do I know if it has already been relased, just want to know people's opinion on the movie is, if they have seen it(or the trailer) or now about the actual events that took place so long ago..

[Rage Against the Right]

I went to it last night, it was a good movie, kinda sad. The acting in it was really good, the black guy is the gyu from Ocean's 11 and 12 and he's really good. I've read up on the actual events and the movie is pretty true to form, I'd check it out if you have the means.

[guerillablack]

I heard it was a good movie from friends that went to see it.

[Lardlad95]

I just saw the movie yesterday, and honestly I nearly cried. When I saw the faces of the people as the European forces took all the white foriegners and left the Rwandans to die I was heartbroken. The movie was excellent and it should have won best picture.

People still don't know about what happened there...and I don't think anyone cares. It's a damn shame...if your darker than a manilla folder it doesn't matter if you are masacred.


I hope everyone at this site sees this movie just so we can be reminded of how the "moral" western world isn't so moral

[Cokane]

I saw it a few weeks ago, that bit with the Europeans and the bus was a tearjerker for sure. I was filled with so much rage, I loved it when the Tutsi forces took the militia apart at the end. The apathy towards Rwanda from the west was scary, I don't remember a lot on the news at all back then. It should be shown at schools and places like that to highlight what went on there, and the pathetic and downright disgusting attitude of the West.

And the actors name is Don Cheadle, his wife is played by Sophie Okonedo.

[guerillablack]

I bought the movie last weekend, and scheduled a movie night at my college's library auditorium and showed it. We had a huge turnout and everyone enjoyed it.

[bolshevik butcher]

It's an amazing, very powerful film. With fantastic acting, it was robbed at the oscars.

[NovelGentry]

Yeah, Kudos. There's another film called "Kigali" too which I'm pretty sure is focused on the same issue, although not centered around the hotel and what not. The actor from Hotel Rwanda is pushing for widespread recognition now and has come out to push for support for amnesty international and raising awareness on Darfur.

Unfortunately, no matter how much awareness is raised, perhaps one of the characters in the movie said it best when he noted:

The people in the west, they see this on their TVs and say, "oh that's horrible," and then they go back to eating dinner.

(paraphrased but fairly accurate)

[Non-Sectarian Bastard!]

Yeah good film. Because it was such a good film, I found it kinda short. "Enjoyed" the full 2 hours. I was especially relieved, when I saw the Tutsi rebels fight off the Hutu army.

[Motorcycle_diAries]

it's a Great with capital G movie.

[coda]

I just saw a movie on PBS (US) called "Sometimes in April." It was a very good recounting of the Rwanda Genocide -- a background of the situtation would be helpful to understand the events in the movie, though.

I remember very chatty discussions about it on the news--- "ethnic cleansing" the very clean sterile term the media created to deliberately wash over the true brutality of it -- like it's some sort of cultural bubble bath rather than a massive blood bath. It's sooo fucking unbelievable and disturbing that almost a million human beings were massacred with very little outrage or much intervention from the UN or the rest of the world until it was over. it makes you wonder if humanity will ever ever step up to the plate and do what's right.

[Non-Sectarian Bastard!]

The very short short and simple background story:

The Europeans when they colonized, they felt the need to create a middle-class. To do so, they selected African locals at pretty much random. These tutsi (middle-class) were widely hated by the oppressed majority (hutu). When the Europeans left, the hutu's came to power and started their revenge.

I'd recommend to read some more on it though.

[coda]

Hey, thanks NSB. I did get the basic gist of that from narrative of the film and did go look it up afterwards. The confusing points of the movie Sometimes in April was that it covered a lot of territory and you couldn't be sure exactly what was going on all the time. At one point the RPF came in and liberated some people who were in the swamps and i wasn't sure who the RPF were nor completely sure which were the French and Belgium peacekeeping forces and why they withdrew. It was pretty vague in those areas. However, it got the main point acrossed depicting the genocide and basically showed the US's complete disinterest in getting involved. :( Rough stuff to watch. :(

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

I saw it a few days ago and I loved it.
One of the best movies of last year, if not the best.
The acting is amazing. Their experience is so real that you can't help but feel it.
All technical and artistic aspects aside, it was just about the most revealing fiction I've ever seen. If you can even call it a work of fiction.
It shows a tragedy so horrible that's almost surreal and most people refuse to really acknowledge its toll.
Amazing movie.

[PRC-UTE]

The director's an ex-IRSP member.

I still need to see the film!

[Ultra-Violence]

saw this movie as well commrades and the acting was terrific as many of you have stated but i give more credit to the wife she did some hard stuff in that movie. and it was so disturbing how these people were killed with "MACHETES" what a terrible way to die and ill give th U.N a little High five for at least trying to help altho i felt they could of done more. :hammer:

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

They didn't try at all.. did you pay attention to the movie??

This movie brought me to tears, and that's never happened from a movie before..

If anyone is in Hartford, CT, USA our group (The Free People's Movement) is showing this movie on the 30th..

more info:
http://rebeldeporlapaz.gnn.tv/

[rioters bloc]

i cried so much during it

im an emotional person anyway, but it really really turned on the waterworks

[Pawn Power]

‘Hotel Rwanda’ Fosters the Illusion of Relying on Imperialists
In 1994, the Rwandan genocide took millions of working-class lives. "Hotel Rwanda" follows the experiences of Paul (Don Cheadle), a Rwandan manager’s assistant at a wealthy Belgian four-star hotel. The movie begins shortly before the murder of president Juvenal Habyarimana and the start of the Rwandan massacres. Paul is portrayed as the unintentional hero in a country of chaos where people are brutally murdered for their ethnic background; men, women and children are cut to pieces with machetes, bodies cover the streets. "Hotel Rwanda" through its well-crafted script and its gruesome and often heart-wrenching moments makes the strong case that the U.S. should have intervened.

The movie boldly blames the lack of intervention on racism. A pivotal scene in which the U.N. allied forces are sent "to save" the people and the refugees in the hotel makes this clear. The commander of the U.N. forces (Nick Nolte) argues with the head of the allied forces because their orders were to escort the tourists — not the Rwandan people — out of the country. Immediately afterwards the U.N. general tells Paul, "They think you’re dirt. You’re black. You’re not even a n-----. You’re an African."

This argument masks the real reason why capitalists support U.N. interventions in any country: whether or not they’ll profit from their resources and labor. The world’s bosses don’t care about the massacres of innocent working-class people.

"Hotel Rwanda" briefly describes the origin of the ethnic cleansing. The conflict began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when imperialist European bosses changed Rwandan history. "Imposing their own racist superiority on the Tutsi ‘Hamito-semites’ and a corresponding inferiority on the Hutu." (N.Y. Times, 8/30/03) The Tutsi’s were only 18% of the population but were given many of the government and administrative jobs. This segregation and racism created by the imperialists caused the tensions that propelled the massacres of millions of Tutsi people. The Hutu’s misdirected their hatred towards their own working-class brothers and sisters, the Tutsis. The Hutu’s nationalism, like many nationalist and ethnic movements, encouraged workers to fight one another instead of their real enemy, the imperialist bosses. Actually the Tutsi’s were, and still are, the favored ruling class for the Belgian imperialists.

As the movie’s plot thickens, the Rwandan refugees fight for their survival within the walls of this four-star Hotel de Mille-Collines owned by the Belgian giant Sabena. During the genocide, the company called the Belgian government and stopped the militia from killing all the refugees for a few days. Paul, the main character, plays the role of the bosses’ lackey. He even charges the refugees for staying in the hotel. He mainly wants to keep up the "dignity" of the hotel. In the midst of his struggle, Paul realizes he’s just being used as a ruling-class stooge.

This film fosters the illusion that only pleading for help from foreign capitalists can save the working class from racist genocide. The movie’s timely release directly relates to U.S. interest in a UN intervention in Sudan, specifically Darfur. Intervention for "human rights" is a capitalist excuse. Sudan and its neighboring regions are strategically important for their oil reserves. If U.S. bosses "intervene" in Sudan under the guise of "human rights," they can get a bigger piece of the profits at the expense of their rival oil bosses in China who are now exploiting Sudan’s oil.

The real murderers are the capitalists whose every step is based on maximum profits. They put the machetes into the hands of the Hutus and they push nationalist/racist propaganda. Workers can never be free from racist genocide until we smash the system that creates these superficial separations. Fighting for communism is fighting for the future of the international working class.

CHALLENGE, April 27, 2005

[Che NJ]

the special features on the DVD are disturbing. They said french soldiers helped the hutus bury victims of the genocide. Nothing was done to find out who they were or take action against them.

[Organic Revolution]

that movie made me sad for a very long time. i recomend everyone watch it.

[Arsiema]

Yea..it's a great movie. I almost cried too. They should have given it an Oscar too. Anyways,,,,it really reveals what has been done out there ...........am glad they made it.

[timbaly]

It certainly deserved an oscar nomination. A clearly superior film to Finding Neverland and The Aviator, though they were very good as well.

[bulrog]

Film was class, certainly better than 99% of the crap out there.

[workersunity]

Ya it was a kick ass movie, gives our movement even more momentum

[Sa'd al-Bari]

It was a very good movie, from both a cinematographic and historic point of view. Also note that the same kind of effects of imperialism that resulted in the Rwandan events have also played into a lot of the current situations in Africa. So it’s also good to see it for a bit of a perspective on today’s events. That says a lot about this movie, there aren’t many I can say that for.

If you watch it, don’t be surprised if it evokes some strong emotions within you. Also try to pay attention to the background information.

[Ander]

Definitely an excellent movie. I rented it one night and liked it so much I made my family sit down and watch it too.

The scene where all the whites are leaving while the blacks stay behind is really powerful, that's my favorite scene of the movie.

[rioters bloc]

Originally posted by Che [email protected] 16 2005, 11:11 PM
the special features on the DVD are disturbing. They said french soldiers helped the hutus bury victims of the genocide. Nothing was done to find out who they were or take action against them.
lyrics from 'dstant sense of random menace' by urthboy


try as I might I cannot get my head around the hutus
slaughtering the tutsis in Rwanda one-nine-nine-four
and then on top to comprehend how the united nations
let it happen with their blue helmets armed at the door
eight hundred thousand in less than ninety days
is Africa just too far away?
or is the genocide convention only mentioned in connection
with the nazis and the jews during world war two
cos your world views seen through the same few that drew
their bloody colonial maps for custodial taxes
historical pacts, treaties and age-old arrangements ignore
in order for the dominant order to be restored




down to fucking colonialism. belgian colonisers imposing physical, political borders on a land that had existed for hundreds of thousands of years without them. and then on top of that, to give one tribe dominance over another for hundreds of years, telling them they were superior to the hutus, to degrade them, to treat them like slaves. until it ends in a genocide.

i'm in no way supporting the actions of the hutus. it was sickening, it was gory. but i can't ignore the historical background which led to it.