Terry George

A hotel manager shelters Rwandan refugees.

Very powerful movie. Great performances. I expected to hate this movie. I expected it to be the kind of movie (like Schindler's List) that makes itself immune to criticism because to speak badly of it would seem insensitive of the subject matter. I expected it to be a movie that had Something To Say more than a story to tell. It is decidedly not that kind of movie. There is some finger wagging in places, but it's an unavoidable byproduct of setting show more the scene, and I expect that if audiences were expected to know anything about African history/current events, it could have been happily skipped. This isn't a movie about genocide; it's a movie about people caught in the middle of it, trying to cope and survive. If it were purely fictional, it wouldn't be any less effective. It's suspenseful and exciting. And it's extremely depressing, which is why I only give it 4 stars; good as it is, I'm never going to love a movie that makes me feel crappy. I actually had a nightmare last night that people were out to kill me and my family. Not many movies can get into my head like that. show less

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 show more 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 show less

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1286746.html

This is a companion book to Terry George's film, Hotel Rwanda, which I'm ashamed to say I haven't seen. The events of the 1994 genocide are indeed dramatic and shameful for those who could have intervened but didn't, and George's film successfully raised consciousness about the moral responsibility to protect civilian populations from violence. The book, which I got as a freebie a few years ago, unfortunately isn't an especially good introduction to show more the subject; it consists of a few short essays by George and others on the background and on how the film came to be made (one of the supporting pieces is riddled with factual errors), bulked out with a transcript of the PBS Frontline documentary on the genocide and the complete screenplay of the film. Still, it reminds me that I should try and see the real thing. show less

A film starring Oscar Isaac and Charlotte Le Bon (Open Road Films, 2017).

Two Armenians in Constantinople have an affair when WWI starts.

C- (Meh).

I gave up after 35 minutes. So far it had been nothing but a string of bad tropes, with a supporting Christian Bale performance as the only thing that had any potential of ever doing anything interesting.

(Jan. 2023)