Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 05/20/2008 Run time: 122 minutes Rating: Pg13

Solidly built around a subtle yet commanding performance by Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda emerged as one of the most highly-praised dramas of 2004. In a role that demands his quietly riveting presence in nearly every scene, Cheadle plays real-life hero Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager in the Rwandan capital of Kigali who in 1994 saved 1,200 Rwandan "guests" from certain death during the genocidal clash between tribal Hutus, who slaughtered a million victims, and the horrified Tutsis, who found safe haven or died. Giving his best performance since his breakthrough role in Devil in a Blue Dress, Cheadle plays Rusesabagina as he really was during the ensuing chaos: "an expert in situational ethics" (as described by critic Roger Ebert), doing what he morally had to do, at great risk and potential sacrifice, with an understanding that wartime negotiations are largely a game of subterfuge, cooperation, and clever bribery. Aided by a United Nations official (Nick Nolte), he worked a saintly miracle, and director Terry George (Some Mother's Son) brings formidable social conscience to bear on a true story you won't soon forget. --Jeff Shannon

Throughout the film, "Hotel Rwanda", the protagonist, Paul Rusesabagina (played by Don Cheadle) deceives, flatters, lies, and uses the property that belongs to others for bribery. In other words, he behaves in a way that I am sure Jesus would commend. Really.
The film (a true story) opens in April of 1994 in Rwanda as two rival parties, the Hutus and the Tutsis, seem on the verge of peace. But it was not to be. The assassination of the President of Rwanda led to a grave escalation in the civil war.
During the colonization of Rwanda by the Belgians, the occupiers almost arbitrarily divided the Rwandans into two groups. The Tutsi were deemed more European, and were given positions of power and privilege during the colonial period. But when the Belgians left, Hutus took charge, and they harbored a pent up hatred of the Tutsi.
Rusesabagina was the manager of a posh French hotel in Rwanda, catering primarily to Europeans and Americans. He was also a Hutu married to a Tutsi.
As hostility and chaos in the country escalated, the Hutus (soldiers and civilians) began to attack all of the Tutsi people. Rusesabagina was initially reluctant to come to the aid of his Tutsi neighbors in need. But eventually he took in many endangered family members, neighbors and orphans into his hotel.
He hoped the United Nations or other Western powers would intervene when it became obvious that genocide of the Tutsi people was taking place. But the outside world did not intervene in the slaughter of the Tutsi.
So Rusesabagina took it upon himself to save as many lives as he could. He flattered the Hutu leaders and lied to them about sheltering Tutsi and the dangers of attacking them. He used the hotel's food, drink and finances to bribe Hutu soldiers.
After six months, nearly one million Tutsi were killed. But Rusesabagina had saved approximately 1200 lives.
His story reminded me of Jesus' parable about another manager. In Luke 16, Jesus told about a manager whose boss discovered he was cheating. The manager was still in charge of his master's goods, but he knew his time as manager was coming to an end. So he brought in all those who owed money to his master and slashed their debts. This won him the favor of the debtors. The manager knew he could turn to the debtors for help when he was fired.
In this strange parable, Jesus commends the manager for being shrewd, for using the resources of his boss (which he held temporarily) to win himself long-term gain. Rusesabagina used the resources entrusted to him by the hotel company to save lives.
Jesus admired that kind of thinking. To be able to trade beer and cigars to save human lives is quite a shrewd deal. Jesus was not endorsing dishonesty with this parable. But He was teaching us that all our resources are temporary possessions. And if we are wise we will use those resources for eternity.
Just as Rusesabagina used the resources entrusted to him to save lives, we can use our resources to save lives and souls. We can use what we have to feed the hungry and preach the gospel to the poor. Jesus commends this as a shrewd business move.
(The issue of deceiving is a tricky one. In Scripture dishonesty is roundly condemned. But Rahab the prostitute is commended in Scripture for hiding Israelite spies and lying when asked if she knew where they were. Rusesabagina seems to be an honest man, but he did lie in the tradition of Rahab. On the other hand, during the Nazi Holocaust, the Ten Boom family hid Jews during the occupation of Holland. The Ten Boom girls knew it was wrong to lie. When asked whether Jews were in the house, Corrie's sister said the Jews were under the table. The soldiers assumed she was joking and ignored the hiding place beneath the floor under the table.)
News reports say it has been screened twice at the White House, and that the real Paul Rusesabagina has met with President Bush about the current situation in the Sudan and the Congo.
Tragedies like the genocide in Rwanda are sadly not unique in history. But when such things happen, (to paraphrase the film's tag line), Christians must not close our eyes to the oppressed, but rather open our arms.

I was disappointed with the movie. I was hoping Rwanda, including the hotel would all be destroyed. Im sick and tired of Africa. The problem with Africa is that its full of Africans. Oh, well. Sigh.

This movie is one of the most powerful of it's type. When it was first out, there were two other movies depicting the genocides and problems facing african nations. While each is very good, Hotel Rwanda is the best. It's simple story about a simple man saving hundreds of people, and the personal growth he experienced, reaches out across the Atlantic to touch all of us who watch it.

Paul's struggle to save first his family, then the hundreds who came to him forhelp, is very powerfully portrayed. I actually show this movie to my 9th graders as a lesson in non-print non-fiction. It has opened their eyes to what the rest of the world experiences and shows them more about what they've only heard bits and pieces of. many of them actually did their research papers on related topics, expanding on what they had learned.

I have not seen this movie. From the comments I did read I feel Hollywood has once again taken facts and Holywood-ized them. The main character had only a minimal role and pretty much didn't have a choice to help out.
To make a factual assessment of the Genocide in Rwanda you should read the book "Shake Hands with the Devil" by Romeo Dallaire. He was the General in charge of the UN forces there at the time. It outlines the complete futility of the mission, the inept UN Organization in New York, the lack of cooperation and lies from the waring parties. Most importantly the way the world turned it's back on Rwanda, specifically the United States. These brave Countries had assessed there was no "value" or "gain" in helping Rwanda.
Read the book.

Don Cheadle, as Paul Ruseasabagina, the Rwandan Manager of a 4-star hotel which serves as a haven for Europeans and African Elites, gives a performance that is at once measured, controlled and deeply anguished. As a fact-based but fictionalized account, "Hotel Rwanda" captures the horror and absolute madness of racially-based war that had its origins in European colonialization when the Germans (and later the Belgians, to much more devastating effect) exalted the Tutsis (for the their more "European" physical characteristics) as the prominent ruling class over the Hutus. The ebb and flow of decades-long resentments finally came to a head in 1994, when close to a million Tutsis were felled in a horrific blood-bath--and all in the face of European and American indifference.

Cheadle's Ruseasabagina (a Hutu who is married to a Tutsi, played by Sophie Okonedo )first shows an unremarkable decency that ascends to heroic proportions as he risks the lives of himself and family, attempting to shield and help well over 1200 people--first by crowding them into his Hotel, a temporary "safe house" and then by bartering transportation away from the encroaching Hutu militia. The film's intensity is heightened by the fact that many surviving Rwandan refugees from that era were recruited as extras--essentially reliving, in a sense, a most horrendous nightmare. The movie also benefits enormously from provocative performances given by Sophie Okonedo (as Tatiana, his long-suffering wife); Nick Nolte who, as the near-ineffectual commander of UN peacekeepers, gets across the utter shame and disgust felt by many who were essentially powerless to stop the massacre; and Joaquin Phoenix in a bit part as a randy reporter who has an affair with a local Tutsi and then abandons her as casually as one would an anonymous call girl.