HIST 3030 - Movie Analysis - Hotel Rwanda - World History Since 1500 PDF

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I watched the historic movie, Hotel Rwanda, that took place in a non-Western culture. After watching the movie, I had to separate fact from fiction. I used many sources to evaluate how much of the movie was Hollywood and how much is valid history. Overall, I found that this movie was quite accurate compared to other Hollywood movies based on historical events. However, there was still many parts of the movie that were fictionalized for Hollywood. There were many facts from the movie, Hotel Rwanda, that actually took place in the Rwandan Genocide. The simple facts were maintained including a devastating genocide that lasted from April to June 1994. It is hard to imagine so many people being killed in such a short period of time, but the movie was accurate in saying that there were approximately 800,000 people killed (“Rwanda: How,” 2008). The hotel keeps its name of Hotel des Mille Collines or Hotel of the Thousand Hills. The genocide was sparked by the death of the Rwandan President when his plane was shot down near the Kigali airport on April 6, 1994. This was accurately portrayed in the movie in a scene where ???????? The movie was accurate in portraying the two ethnic groups, the Tutsis and Hutus, as being very similar. This can be easily seen in the movie where an American journalist speaks tries to figure out the differences between Hutus and Tutsis, but he has a hard time figuring out the differences as they look like twins. This scene was a perfect example of how similar these two ethnic groups were. The identification cards that stated the person’s ethnic background were actually used in Rwanda and could mean the “difference between life and death” for the Rwandans (“Genocide,” 1999). The movie shows that ordinary Hutu civilians were ‘recruited’ by the military personnel to kill the Tutsis through bribes by food and money. There are many visual appearances of the roadblocks and barricades that were set up throughout the country, which they used in their slaughter of Tutsis. Roadblocks were also common during the actual 1994 genocide. Another fact illustrated in the movie that was in line with real life is that the “men, women, and children were slaughtered alike” and “no one seems able to say why” (Windrich, 1999). It was obvious to me while watching this movie that they didn’t have a reason for killing all these people other than their ethnic group. This brought in a lot of shock for the relatives and neighbors in the movie, which also took place in the actual event. Hotel Rwanda did an excellent job in showing the influential Rwandan state radio, which

encouraged killing by the Hutu extremists. From the beginning of the movie and throughout the course of the movie it showed how influencing the radio actually was in organizing killings and finding the Tutsis who were in hiding. Another fact was the vocabulary in the movie, especially the word “cockroaches.” The Captain uses this word a lot in the movie, which is quite true according to historians. The Hutus often referred to the Tutsi civilians as “evil, snakes, cockroaches, and sneaky” (Uraizee, 2005). One of the central themes in Hotel Rwanda that they were largely left alone by the international community is correct. The included how the UN was there initially, but they were moved out entirely and let the Tutsi’s fend for themselves as they faced a huge genocide. When the UN was there, they became “overwhelmed as terrified Tutsi families and moderate politicians sought protection” (“Genocide,” 1999). The UN officers in the movie were visible overwhelmed as civilians were desperate for help and protection for the Hutu’s acts. Hotel Rwanda showed the refugees who came to the hotel for help as high-profile that included politicians and successful career people. Although it was a subtle observation, this true background of these people was mentioned twice during the movie. There were also many pieces of fiction in the movie, Hotel Rwanda, that weren’t part of the actual Rwandan Genocide. The differences were most likely fictionized to fit in with Hollywood’s expectations and norms. I found these pieces of fiction after intense research in various sources. A simple piece of fiction was that it wasn’t shot in the actual hotel. This would be helpful for viewers to know that hotel didn’t look like it was portrayed in the movie. Similarly, the actors weren’t Rwandans, except a few extras, which means that they look may, act, and talk different from native Rwandans. One of the differences is that the death of the President definitely sparked the genocide, but it was most certainly not the only cause. There were several other reasons that caused “Africa’s largest genocide in modern times” (“Rwanda: How,” 2008). I don’t think that these other reasons were very well portrayed in the movie as also causing this genocide. A minor difference from the information in the movie is that the Tutsis are often taller and thinner than the Hutus, which was expressed in the movie. Only the difference in skin color and size of their nose was explained. Hotel Rwanda showed many bodies who were killed and just left on the road or in their yards, but they didn’t show how many bodies of the Tutsis’ were thrown into the rivers. These bodies could be “commonly seen floating down the Kigara River” (“Genocide,” 1999). The movie doesn’t mention dumping of bodies into rivers, but I realize that a movie can only include so many aspects. Another related difference was their killers would often say that “they were being sent back to Ethiopia,” rather than saying they were killed (“Rwanda: How,” 2008). In the

movie, everyone seems to know that their Tutsis family, friends, and neighbors were being killed. There were no mention that they were being sent back to Ethiopia, which stemmed from them saying that the Tutsis originated there. As apparent in the title of the movie, it focuses on the people who took refuge in the main hotel. It does not talk about how many of the Tutsis took refuge in churches and mission compounds. The movie shows a church orphanage filled with children, but they were being brought to the hotel, rather than people fleeing to churches and mission compounds. It was so important that the people fled here because they became the site of some of the worst massacres during the genocide. I was also very sad to read that hospitals also were a target place for the worst massacres as the wounded survivors were killed. The lack of help from the international nations was very well established throughout the movie, but what they didn’t say that by the U.N. finally arrived with soldiers it was too late. By the time that the UN Security Force fully arrived, the “genocide had been over for months” (“Rwandan Genocide,” 2009).The movie makes it seem like they arrived in time and saved everyone, but that isn’t what actually happened. The ending statement in the movie makes everything sound good and ties it up in a neat bow. However, this is not what happened. It does not tell about the events that followed the genocide. Many had to flee to surrounding countries and “thousands died as a result of cholera and dysentery due to poor conditions in the refugee camps” (Nzabatsinda, 2005). The message that is given by Hollywood is that everything was better, but this was fictionalized as there were many effects after the Genocide.

References The History Place - Genocide in the 20th Century: Rwanda 1994. (1999). The History Place Genocide in the 20th Century: Rwanda 1994. Retrieved April 14, 2014, from http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/rwanda.htm George, T. (Director). (2004). Hotel Rwanda [Motion picture]. Rwanda: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Home Entertainment. Nzabatsinda, A. (2005). Hotel Rwanda. Research in African Literatures, 36(4), 233+. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE %7CA138272918&v=2.1&u=lom_kelloggcc&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=ef9a02f57b0b0c9a 4d3a1160eba3f6ab The Rwandan Genocide. (2009).History.com. Retrieved April 10, 2014, from http://www.history.com/topics/rwandan-genocide Rwanda: How the genocide happened. (2008, December 18). BBC News. Retrieved April 10, 2014, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1288230.stm Sakota-Kokot, Tanja. "When the past talks to the present: fiction narrative and the 'other' in Hotel Rwanda." Critical Arts 27.2 (2013): 211+. Academic OneFile. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. Windrich, E. (1999). Revisiting genocide in rwanda. Third World Quarterly, 20(4), 855-860. Retrieved from http://lrc1.kellogg.edu/docview/219769913?accountid=41088...