After watching Hotel Rwanda

To most people in Taiwan, genocide and massacre are just some kinds of vocabularies that we can hear from CNN or BBC. However, to people who live in Africa, those words are not merely idioms but death.

Terry George, a famous director, produce this movie which is based on a true story, “Hotel Rwanda”, to remind the audience around the world that something cruel is indeed existed on this planet. And, the most reason to cause such kind of tragedies might be the ignorance of people all over the world. In the movie, when Paul thought that the news the reporters cast might help the whole world know that Rwanda needed help, the reporter just said that people would feel terrible but keep eating their meal without any actions. At that moment, the director indicated the truth without any covers. What happened in Rwanda is just nothing to them. First, there is no resource. Second, helping this Africans is not benefited. The lines which were spoke from the actors are just like knifes and swords cutting and penetrating the audiences again and again. It hurts but we cannot deny it.

Meanwhile, greed, is another point that the director use to make the audience to receive the whole concept of the movie. The western powers protected the hotel for their reputation to maintain their enterprise. The Hutu general help Paul for the bribe. Without advantages and bribes, there would not be helps and hopes anymore. It sounds quite cruel, but it is quite real that you can hardly face it. We might blame those people and scold them, but we have to understand we are also the ones who did nothing to help them.

In “Hotel Rwanda”, the director did not use the bloody and cruel scenes to express how the genocide happened. Instead of that, he use the fear of actors. In other word, the atmosphere is the real notion that T. George wanted to show. Expressions of the actors convey the fear of them. The close-up is so impressive that I can hardly forget the feeling when I watch this movie. Every take of each face make me even believe that they were indeed in the tragedy of human history, not acting in a movie.

Undoubtedly, this is a terrific movie. In the aspect of dealing the race issue, “Hotel Rwanda” can be taken as a masterpiece. Besides, the music, the actors and the production and direction are quite excellent. It is success not only because it is a good movie but also it make us know what we should understand.

Million Voices


The reporter told Paul that the cruel truth when people watched the news on TV

by Jason