Hotel Rwanda

[Dave A]

I saw this movie today, very good and it shows you what really goes on in the world. It's based on a true story and stars Don Cheadle who uses his hotel to hide Hutu's and Tutsi's and protect them from being massacered and using bribes to stop the soldiers. Theres a scene about half an hour in where his friends and staff are all about to be killed by a soldier and he's pleading with the soldier not to kill them but he ends up having to pay them which was a lot better than I just made it sound. Nick Nolte plays the leader of a UN peace keeping team who tries to get them out of the country. It's worth watching imo, it won't be to everyones tastes it's not an action movie or anything like that but the acting from Don is great, the story is moving and it leaves you thinking about it after the film is over, at least it did with me.

 

[Anderton Prime]

I heard it was excellent, but that the violence was severely toned down in order to get a lower rating. In my opinion this was a major sellout, and now I won't watch the movie in theatres but will wait for it to come out on video. The goal of this movie was to open people's eyes to the slaughter that was largely ignored by the rest of the world, and with something this brutal and horrifying, you need to think about other things than making profit and you have to show the violence as it occurred. Anyone remember the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan? It - and the entire movie - would have sucked if the violence had been "toned down" to save itself from getting an R-rating.

Anyway, I'll catch it on video and that's that.

 

[a6m5]

I understand exactly what Anderton is saying, and if it was my film, I'd done the same. However, if they wanted to tone down the violence in order to reach more viewers, that's ok by me. I'm sure there are many people who doesn't like watching violence on film, and don't forget about children who might benefit from watching an film like this, also.

I haven't see this film, but my favorite critic Roger Ebert selected this film as one of the year's Top 10, so I'd definitely be watching it. I'm sure Don Cheadle is great in this film. He's an awesome actor. 👍 Nick Nolte should be interesting in this unique role.

 

[Dave A]

It gets the point of what was going on over there across despite it being toned down, theres still a lot of bodies in the film, not much gore which is where it was toned down but as I said you do get a good idea what was going on, in a large part thanks to the acting you genuinely start to feel for the people in the movie. Since it still gets the point across very well you have to ask yourself, was toning it down a bad thing, since more people get to see it now and more people get to understand what was going on better as a result of a lower rating. If it needed more violence to get the point across then sure keep it in because if a film like this doesnt do that it loses it's value, but this one hasn't.

 

[Anderton Prime]

Well I promise I'll see it when it comes to video because you liked it so much, and I'll try to remember to dig up this thread and post my take on it after having seen it.

 

[a6m5]

Well I promise I'll see it when it comes to video because you liked it so much, and I'll try to remember to dig up this thread and post my take on it after having seen it.

Me too!

 

[a6m5]

It took a long time, but I'm digging this thread up.

I finally saw this movie on DVD last night. It is easily one of the best films I've seen this year. I haven't seen this year's top films such as "the Aviator" or the "Miliion Dollar Baby", but something tells me they won't be better than "Hotel Rwanda".

Don Cheadle is usually an great actor. In this film, I must say, he's reached the top of his game. He was totally believable, as with most other actors in this film. Only actors that distracted me was some of the extras(especially the European) and Nick Nolte. Nolte is an accomplished actor, but I kept seen "Nick Nolte" instead of the U.N. Colonel, he's supposed to be portraying. It wasn't an major distraction, however.

There's one scene, where Cheadle character is in the van, driving in the fog. The van starts running over huge bumps on the road, so the van stops and Cheadle gets out to check it out. He trips and falls on to mound of bodies. He panics, gets up and sees there are countless bodies on the road from genocide of the Tutsis. When he got back to the hotel, he's gets out of the bloody shirt(from the dead bodies) in a private room. His character was somehow able to holdup, stay strong until that point. When he's trying to put the tie on, he finally breaks down, in tears. That was one of the most memorable scene, I've ever witnessed in any films.

I don't know who directed this film, but there's more information about the "making of" this film in the extra feature of this DVD, so I'll make sure to watch that. I give this movie an "A". Congratulations, Mr. Director and Don Cheadle!

P.S. I almost forgot, but Jean Reno and Joaquin Phoenix has small roles in the film. They were both really good. 👍

 

[the_undrtaker89]

I don't think they toned it down to make a profit. They probably did it so more people would watch it. This movie is obviously not about profit.

I just saw the movie and if someone hadn't told me that they "toned it down" I wouldn't have known. This movie is still an eye opener and don cheadle does an excellent job. The only problem I had with the film was that gregoire wasn't shot(I hate him so much) and that the ending came out of no where.

If they had made the movie violent I think it would have came out too.....not good....?

 

[Dave A]

Well I promise I'll see it when it comes to video because you liked it so much, and I'll try to remember to dig up this thread and post my take on it after having seen it.

Have you seen it yet?

 

[FoolKiller]

I don't think they toned it down to make a profit. They probably did it so more people would watch it. This movie is obviously not about profit.

I just saw the movie and if someone hadn't told me that they "toned it down" I wouldn't have known. This movie is still an eye opener and don cheadle does an excellent job. The only problem I had with the film was that gregoire wasn't shot(I hate him so much) and that the ending came out of no where.

If they had made the movie violent I think it would have came out too.....not good....?

I thnk that by toning it down they just didn't show the killing, but they do let you see the hatred and the aftermath so you get the point without getting sick.

Showing the mass killings may have turned a lot of viewers off just because they couldn't handle it. The way they did this did not leave a feeling of sell out.