Hotel Rwanda (2004)

Director: Terry George
MGM/United Artists

Reviewed by Popcorn and the Kernels - 8/12/05

A friend of mine with a fine intellect, notwithstanding a penchant for Rush Gasbag ravings, commented over beers one night that a confederation of democracies would make more sense than the United Nations.  After all, this is the UN, where in 2003 the "Republic" of Libya was appointed to chair its Human Rights Commission.

Good point.

And it brings to mind the classic quote from Ayn Rand in her 1964 Playboy interview.  When asked if she favored withdrawal from the UN, she replied, "Yes.  I do not sanction the grotesque pretense of an organization allegedly devoted to world peace and human rights, which includes Soviet Russia, the worst aggressor and bloodiest butcher in history, as one of its members."

So back in 1945, the UN certainly got off to a bad start.

Nor does it appear to have a lot going for it now.  Any of its alleged success stories, such as Bosnia and Serbia, to the extent they may be called successes were probably not due to the UN as a whole.  More typical is what the UN’s stand has been toward highly publicized instances of genocide in Africa: Rwanda and Sudan.  That is, look the other way.

Note  -  Qua libertarian, I cannot advocate government intervention in other countries.  Neither by my own government nor by a combination of governments.  I’m a firm believer in private humanitarian expeditionary forces.  Still, in a context of bona fide genocide—what is genocide but extreme destruction of a people by force?—intervention is something I’d be prepared to "look the other way" on.

Rwanda, once a colonial client of Belgium, has two main ethnic or tribal groupings: the Hutus and the Tutsis.  During its reign, the Belgians ignored ethnic rivalries and tended to favor the more-educated Tutsis in posts of power.  Hutu lands were opened to Tutsis, and surely Hutus were the more persecuted of the two groups.

Persecution is relative, however.  In 1990 the Hutus found themselves in power fighting a Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front.  The civil war enflamed Hutu extremists and led to a wholesale slaughter of Tutsi civilians during a horrific, hysterical genocide in 1994.  The later stages of this genocidal rampage, which killed roughly a million Tutsis (often by hacking with machetes), provide the setting of the movie.

Hotel Rwanda is a gripping, moving story of an ordinary man’s struggle against extraordinary evil.  During the disturbances, Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), manager of the four-star Hotel Des Milles Collines in the capital city of Kigali, works to save the lives of his guests.  The UN does intervene to evacuate the Europeans, but leaves behind many native Rwandans to the mercies of the Hutu butchers.

Rusesabagina, who is Hutu, manages to save his family and his wife who are Tutsi, by secreting them into the hotel from his residence.  He knows the mob leaders and main players in Kigali, and wields his political influence adroitly.  There is a poignant scene where he is trying to maintain his professionalism and go about his business, but trembles and breaks down trying to tie his tie.  He has seen the carnage that day and looked into the throat of abject terror.

Cheadle makes a terrific performance as a regular guy with lion’s-size courage.  Nick Nolte plays Colonel Oliver, head of the UN peacekeeping force that has been told to stand down.  His performance is a mastery of understatement as he works with Rusesabagina to do the best he can.  It’s a true story, a relatively simple story, and a story that haunts you long after the credits scroll by.

It’s enough to make you want to form a genocide prevention force.  If governments can’t be trusted to do the job, perhaps the people should.

Popcorn