…An excellent film. Never had a movie hit me so hard.
But, I’m wondering, why did the US or any other country do anything to try and stop it?
If you’re really interested in learning more about genocide, I’d recommend Samantha Power’s book A Problem from Hell. Basically, there’s a UN genocide convention that has a very specific definition of genocide, and - you can see this now with what’s happening in Sudan - people spend an incredible amount of time basically arguing over semantics and whether or not the definition has been met or not. Sadly, people seem incapable of believing that something as horrific as genocide is occuring until it’s too late.
If you’re specifically interested in Rwanda, look for Philip Gourevitch’s We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families. Make sure you have a box of Kleenex before you start reading.
I don’t know if there’s any oil in Rwanda.
Even the oil in Iraq didn’t motivate anyone to stop Saddam from murdering 182,000 Kurds in the late 1980s. But thanks for helping prove my hypothesis that the war can be dragged into every single thread on the SDMB.
Er … you’re welcome?
In addition to the excellent books Kyla mentions, Check out the frontline documentary Ghosts of Rwanda. It’s available on Netflix. You actually see the lawerly preverications on the word “genocide.” It’s pretty enraging and depressing.
Career diplomat (as opposed to a political appointee) David Rawson was the ambassador to Rwanda during the mass murders. I served under him in Bamako, Mali and can tell you that most of the people serving at the post were unimpressed with the guy. He seemed more interested in his quirky image and his perks than in accomplishing anything.
His indecision in Rwanda and apparent lack of understanding of the magnitude of what was happening played a part in the reluctance of the U.S. to become involved. President Clinton made the decision not to intercede, but I believe it was based upon poor information from the field. He has since admitted that he regrets not sending in troops. It was disgraceful, much as the refusal to intercede in the Sudan is reprehensible today.
Check out this, too:
I just got back from seeing the movie. That looked like Africa as I remember it. Don Cheadle was…phenomenal. Paul Rusesabagina’s bravery easily equalled the heroism of Schindler, but will likely be forgotten along with the deeds of other brave Africans.
By the way, another excellent book about this awful time is We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, by Philip Gourentch.
Shake Hands with the Devil : The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, by Romeo Dallaire, the General who asked for 5,000 UN troops to stop the slaughter.
Nick Nolte’s character is a weak portrayal of what actually went on.
This is a very recent GD thread on the question.
I saw the movie about a week ago and was just blown away. I mentally compared it to Schindler’s List as well. Cheadle was outstanding. I felt like I was there, and combined with the fact that the events were so recent it did leave me choking and wondering how no one intervened. Nolte’s Colonel Oliver’s explanation was a little bit of an answer. Africa is just not a high priority for any Western nation, whether the problem is genocides, civil war, AIDS, etc.
Yeah, whoever cast Nolte in this movie really missed the boat. He was the only jarring note in an otherwise stellar cast.
Interesting that a wave of us saw this movie in the past few days.
Don Cheadle absolutely blows me away. Here’s a guy who used to be a comic actor - but I adore him in dramatic roles. Wonderful job he did. Nick Nolte, I agree, was a stupid choice. I swear he appeared drunk in the entire film.
We left the movie, and sat thinking about it for awhile. Both of us are right around 30, and neither of us recalled being aware of what was happening in Rwanda. I read We Wish To Inform… last year sometime, so I had already been through the gamut of “how did this happen/why didn’t we do anything/etc.” before in my head, but we went through it again after seeing this film. I found myself crying as we discussed it. Very powerful.
One thing about the movie I noticed - when they were loading Rusesebagina’s family and others onto the UN trucks to get them out of the country, there was a scene in the hotel lobby. Just over someone’s (Paul?) shoulder almost out of focus was a copy of the Time magazine with Bill Clinton on the cover as Man of the Year.
There were two scenes in the movie which stuck out the most for me and they were not scenes of violence.
One is the scene where the photograper played by Joachim Phoenix has just shot footage of people being massacred with machetes and Paul (Cheadle) tells him that now the west will have to intervene, “…how can they see this and not intervene?”
Then Phoenix tells him, “I think they’re going to look at this footage, say ‘my God, that’s horrible,’ then go right on eating their dinner.”
The other was the scene where Nick Nolte is telling Paul how the west really feels;
“They think you’re dirt…you’re not even niggers…you’re Africans.”
This was a very shaming film.
Reminds me, Romeo Dallaire (who is, btw, French-Canadian…I haven’t seen the film yet, but I assume that they made Nolte’s character an American?) later attempted suicide in a Montreal park. His experiences in Rwanda really wrecked him. I think/hope he is doing better now…I saw that he was speaking in Chicago about a week ago. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend.
I remember seeing Canadian flag patches on his jacket.
Well, color me surprised! Guess I should see a movie before I start making assumptions.
While the Nick Nolte character was Canadian, they (wisely, IMHO) did not try for a quebecois accent. And yes, he did appear to be just a couple of drinks shy of falling down through most of the movie.