Wednesday, March 16, 2005
nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do.
Last Saturday I went with Anj to watch Hotel Rwanda. The film itself in was not bad; played straight without too much blood and gore, it still managed to shock much of the audience into stunned silence. Don Cheadle was brilliant as Paul Rusesabagina, a "normal" man caught in circumstances beyond his control.
But the real shocker was the tribal brutality of the military thugs who in turn harass, threaten, assault and then ally themselves with Paul. One of the officers casually demands that Paul shoot his "cockroach" wife and children. A rebel leader keeps cages full of women near the doorways for his troops; when told he couldn't kill all of the Tutsi, he countered, "Why not? Why not? We're halfway there."
The Rwandans didn't even have the silent efficiency of the gas chamber; all the killing was done by rifle, machete or bare hands.
The violence, even offscreen, is unrelenting. The tender scenes between Paul and his wife are set to gunshots and cannon fire. That the massacre is a historical fact, I know; but it seems alien, fictional, obscene.
But the real shocker was the tribal brutality of the military thugs who in turn harass, threaten, assault and then ally themselves with Paul. One of the officers casually demands that Paul shoot his "cockroach" wife and children. A rebel leader keeps cages full of women near the doorways for his troops; when told he couldn't kill all of the Tutsi, he countered, "Why not? Why not? We're halfway there."
The Rwandans didn't even have the silent efficiency of the gas chamber; all the killing was done by rifle, machete or bare hands.
The violence, even offscreen, is unrelenting. The tender scenes between Paul and his wife are set to gunshots and cannon fire. That the massacre is a historical fact, I know; but it seems alien, fictional, obscene.
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