Hotel Rwanda

I had an inpromptu discussion with a classmate on Hotel Rwanda this morning. He definately had an axe to grind. He looks at it from a deeper perspective than I ever could have.

The story wasn't deep enough for him. All the film seemed to focus on was the slaughter rather than setting up why this was occuring. They didn't give a history in other words. The story of the film didn't talk about the role of the colonizers in Rwanda. It also didn't say that the Hutus were merely immigrants and a minority in Rwanda. So the movie missed a lot things.

But he didn't stop there. What would be the reaction of those who see the film or at least their target audience. According to him, it could reinforce our notions of Africa being this land where they do nothing but murder each other. That we can put ourselves on a higher pedestal than the Africans.

For the record (henceforth abbreviated FTR), I've not seen the movie. It was nominated for an academy award. All I can go on was what my friend said. But he did raise a few valid points that once should consider if you just so happen to see the movie.

Now I know, to make a compelling movie that takes place in history, it seems one has to forget about what really happened in history. In effect that has to take a back seat to making a story everyone wants to see.

Also and I almost forgot this. The movie apparently never mentions the UN's role and America's lack of response to this geonocide. Neither the America or the UN really lifted much of a finger to put a stop to this. This begs the question as to whether the President at the time, Bill Clinton was truly the first black president (and at that he got that title for negative reasons). Also there was the African Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan's role in his failure to stop this genocide.

To be honest, like I said I've not seen this movie, but I will attempt to do so over the summer. Also I don't know the history of this massacre. I don't even know the players during this (whether they're from Rwanda or world wide figures). The bottom line is a story does need to be told.