Hotel Rwanda Essay

The movie â€Å"Hotel Rwanda† is a pathetic story of perhaps the most recent large-scale genocide that should act as a constant reminder to humanity. The atrocities of the Hutu tribesmen relentlessly wiping out the alien Tutsi tribe impress anyone with a heart for human suffering. However, the film is also a tale of human courage and will, in particular the qualities demonstrated by the hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina. This character skilfully portrayed by Don Cheadle leaves an indelible impression on the viewers, showing them how a person can transform from an ordinary selfless man into a leader capable of protecting people from the terror reigning outside. Paul Rusesabagina starts out with the desire to protect his family. He remains sympathetic but passive when he sees a neighbour taken by the Hutu police just because he is a Tutsi. However, with his own wife being of the Tutsi ethnicity, he can no longer remain aside from what is going on in the nation. The Hutu police clamp down on Tutsis, chasing and killing them throughout the country. In days, there are corpses all around and the nation is reverberating with horror. Faced with this terror, Paul is also confronted with the challenge of a thousand of Tutsi refugees in his luxurious hotel. The most upscale hotel in the nation becomes home to a thousand of helpless poor people unable to protect themselves. A different man could have driven them out, but Paul is not the one: he risks incurring the displeasure of the Hutu police. When things get wrong, and the Hutus are raiding his hotel, he hangs on to the only link to survival he has, the phone connection to Belgium. Through what seems almost a miracle, the danger retreats, and Paul and his â€Å"guests† remain in the same suspended position. In this little accident, he acts like a real leader. His leadership does not arise from a commanding posture; instead, he leads people with his vision and ability to be human. Paul clearly shows that he is ready to endanger his personal fate to save others, and people are even more encouraged to trust. This is a very courageous step as, being a Hutu and the manager of a top-notch hotel, he could have been able to save not only himself, but perhaps also his wife and kids. This would become even more realistic if he had kept a low profile. This is not what he was going to do when his hotel housed numerous Tutsis desperately clinging to him as their only way to salvation. This realisation that people depend on him has led him to give up the opportunity to rescue when the UN contingent was taking people to planes and out of the hotel. At the very last moment, Paul screams to his wife that he was not going to join the rest as they were going on their way to salvation. Paul is also the one to house the survivors when it turns out that they cannot make it to the planes. Paul, with his courage and will to counteract the terror that reigns outside, remains the only support for his â€Å"dependents†. The world including the NATO peacekeeping force refuses to interfere. The Colonel of the â€Å"Blue Helmets† feels shamed and dismayed telling Paul that they have abandoned him. Yet Paul does not give up, nor does he flee; he stays in his place, attending to the daunting task of harbouring the people. He even has the wisdom to tell his people that they should call all the influential people they know all over the world and create the pathetic image as if they are holding their hand. Letting this hand loose would mean that Rwandans die – and this could act as inspiration for these important people to act for the sake of the remote African country. Paul Rusesabagina acts like a strong man whose strength stems from his love of people. His appreciation of human life, its intrinsic value, and humane character make him an outstanding example of the art of being human. Displaying unwavering courage and will power in the face of life-threatening savages, the manager of Hotel Rwanda has won himself fame of a selfless and powerful man. Bibliography Hotel Rwanda. Dir. Terry George. With Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo. WGA, 2004. Hotel Rwanda. Official Website. 11 Mar. 06 .