Hotel Rwanda (Blu-ray) PG-13
When the world closed its eyes, he opened his arms.
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Blu-ray Details
- Rated: PG-13
- Run Time: 2 hours, 2 minutes
- Video: Color
- Encoding: Region 1 (USA & Canada)
- Released: May 10, 2011
- Originally Released: 2004
- Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Performers, Cast and Crew:
Starring | Joaquin Phoenix, Don Cheadle, Nick Nolte & Sophie Okonedo | |
Featured: | Jean Reno | |
Directed by | Terry George | |
Screenwriting by | Terry George & Keir Pearson | |
Composition by | Rupert Gregson-Williams & Andrea Guerra | |
Produced by | A. Kitman Ho & Terry George | |
Director of Photography: | Robert Fraisse | |
Executive Production by | Sam Bhembe, Martin Katz, Duncan Reid & Hal Sadoff |
Entertainment Reviews:
Rating: 4/5 --
The emotion comes from Don Cheadle's thrilling portrait of ordinary heroism, a performance that's matched only by the magnificent Sophie Okonedo as his wife Tatiana.
Full Review
BBC.com
Rating: 1.5/4 --
potentially fantastic material...unfortunately, [Terry] George's attempt is too mired in movie-of-the-week sensibilities...to do any justice to its subject matter
Full Review
Cinema Writer
Rating: 75/100 --
The filmmakers want to respect history and not exploit it as so much slasher movie fodder.
Full Review
Apollo Guide
[T]his is a film of rare courage and imperishable heart.
Rolling Stone
[I]n his first leading role Cheadle pitches it exactly right....The story is what matters here. And as current events in Darfur show, it's one that can't be told too often.
Sight and Sound
Showing traces of the well-meaning paternalism that dogs many Western films about Africa, Hotel Rwanda doesn't go far enough in indicting Europeans and Americans for protecting their own while failing to intervene in time to stop the mass killings.
AV Club
Rating: A- --
Don Cheadle gives a beautifully restrained tour de force performance as a singular voice of reason at the epicenter of writer/director Terry George's depiction of Rwanda's outbreak of genocide in 1994 when Hutu militias slaughtered one million Tutsis with
Full Review
ColeSmithey.com
Product Description:
Don Cheadle gives a riveting performance as Paul Rusesabagina, the manager of a European-owned hotel in Rwanda, who created a secret refugee camp for the Tutsi people during the brutal genocide committed against them by the Hutu people in 1994. His efforts helped to save 1200 lives out of close to a million who were killed. HOTEL RWANDA shows this man's courage, while also capturing the political events that occurred between April and September '94. First, United Nations soldiers are restricted from fighting back against Hutu guerillas, even after the Rwandan president is assassinated and the country is thrown into chaos. But as the fighting worsens, all non-Rwandans including UN peacekeepers, Europeans, and Americans are evacuated. This leaves the Tutsi people defenseless against aggressive Hutus who are armed with machine guns and machetes. While working the system with strategic phone calls to powerful international contacts of the hotel, Rusesabagina also uses smart lies and power plays to hold off the Hutus. The morale among the refugees is low, but because they are protected from the inconceivable brutality happening outside the hotel's gates, they maintain a sense of hope. Powerful acting from all cast members, including throngs of children, makes this film touching and believable. Sophie Okonedo offers moving support as Rusesabagina's wife Tatiana, Nick Nolte shows knowing machismo as an American UN officer, and Joaquin Phoenix turns in a heartfelt display as a TV journalist. But it is the delicate treatment that director Terry George gives the insane, helpless situation depicted in HOTEL RWANDA which makes the film so penetrating. While the violence and gore of the genocide play a disturbing part in the film, the focus lies on the heroism of its protagonist and the strength with which he navigates under seemingly impossible odds.