In America, children grow up learning that war is the greatest evil mankind can inflict on one another. This message is almost ingrained at birth and becomes not an opinion, but a matter of fact. Yet, the people of Rwanda know otherwise. Bernard Shaw once wrote that “the worst sin towards our fellow man is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them, that is the essence of inhumanity.” This message is echoed in the movie Hotel Rwanda directed by Terry George. Many people are aware of the horrible cruelty and violence of war, and, as such, regard it as the world’s greatest evil. Yet, Hotel Rwanda shows that the cruelty of war can be matched only by the cruelty of utter indifference.
Hotel Rwanda is a story set during and directly prior to the war and genocide that occurred in Rwanda. The movie is based around the true-life events of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who after the conflict breaks out, houses over one thousand refugees. Paul is a Hutu, yet his entire family and community are members of the Tutsi ethnic group, which is the minority ethnic group in Rwanda, and is being submitted to genocidal violence by the majority ethnic group, the Hutus. Paul must save himself, his family, and in fact almost the entire Tutsi community in his city in order to save them from the Hutu buzzsaw of a machete machine, which is symbolized by the ambiguous, unnamed voice of the Hutu radio channel, which calls them to action. The film follows Paul through his various hardships on the path to his, as well as his many refugees’ safety. Over the course of the movie, Paul eventually triumphs, yet on the way realizes that the people he has been working all his life to suck up to (the Europeans and Americans) in fact do not care about him or his kind. Paul’s sympathy for and relationship to the Tutsi group allows him to greatly influence the point of view of the film by ensuring that it is viewed from the perspective of the innocent victims who are trying to flee the violence.
Additionally, the film portrays very blatantly the violence of war. Throughout the entirety of this film, the viewer is witness to multiple atrocities towards the Tutsi people. The audience sees the cruel, inhumane, and simply unnecessary violence committed by the Hutus. These heinous crimes serve to display the true evil that war really brings. One example is when Paul is driving back to the hotel and the car endures a bumpy road. He goes out to inspect it, as he believes that the Hutus put a series of road blocks to halt his progress, yet when he gets out of the car he discovers an entire solid mass of human corpses scattered as far as the eye can see. When he gets back into the car Paul states, “They did it! They really did it.” This shows the disbelief that Paul feels that the Hutus’ threats, carried by their national messenger, the mysterious man in the radio, have actually been carried out literally.
At another crucial junction in the movie, the local news crew, which is there to cover the UN’s actions, catches on tape an entire village of people being dragged out of their huts and butchered by machete one by one, man, woman, and child. At this point, not only the Tutsis in the hotel, but eventually the entire world, discovers the extent to which the Hutus are willing to carry their cause, and the vindictiveness with which they are willing to accomplish their goals.
In this film, there are almost no references to God whatsoever, and when God is mentioned, it is almost always in a negative connotation. One of the few times when God is directly referenced, is when the United Nations decides to withdraw its peacekeepers in Rwanda, without taking any Africans with them. The missionary which is set to leave with the peacekeepers begs to bring along the converted African children with him, (who by now are orphans), but is severely turned down and chastised when he suggests it. At this point Paul tells him “Don’t bother Reverend, they’re not here to help us.” Shortly thereafter, those children are literally torn away from the Reverend and the other missionaries. This depiction of the cruelty, as well as the absence of a positive image of God, is central to reinforcing the movie’s theme towards immorality in war.
The severity of the violence is also shown in order to contrast with the absolute lack of sympathy and caring displayed from the entirety of the West. Even the film of entire villages being lined up to slaughter by machete-armed militias does not drive the various nations (or the United Nations) to intervene for the sake of the Tutsi people and numerous innocent targeted casualties during the war. The Western world’s lack of initiative for humanitarian intervention would not be as underscored as boldly if it were not for the brutal portrayal of the severity of the fighting in Rwanda. In fact, the West is made to look not only uncaring, but in fact downright condescending when the Europeans send a force which goes in with the sole purpose of getting the Caucasians out of Rwanda. The Europeans do not evacuate a single African from the chaos.
This coldhearted inaction is reminiscent to one scene even within the Western world. The reading done over the lynching of Zach Walker, a black man, in Coatesville, Pennsylvania has a direct correlation to the movie. In the reading, the writer tells of how the most appalling part of the lynching was the fact that a huge crowd stood around and watched the tragedy occur, without even a second thought as to intervening to aid the victim. This corresponds exactly with the Western world’s reaction to the crisis in Rwanda, as they all just sat around and watched it happen, while not doing a thing to stop it, even though doing so was well within their power. In fact, the European reaction would be equivalent to if while Walker was being burned, one of the perpetrators got a splinter from his pitchfork so the entire crowd rushed to bring him tweezers and a Band-Aid.
The Western world’s response to the plight of the Tutsis in Rwanda can be summed up by the analysis of the Colonel in charge of the UN Peacekeepers in Rwanda: “The rest of the world doesn’t care. The rest of the world thinks you’re shit. You’re not even niggers, you’re Africans.” This intimately portrays how the Tutsis are viewed as not only unimportant strategically, but in fact as less than humans. This point is further driven home when after seeing the village massacre footage Paul gets excited that at least this will finally get the West determined to intervene. The journalist merely responds by saying “This type of footage will not bring aid. People will see it, say ‘That’s horrible,’ and go back to their dinners.” Not only are the Tutsi people being dehumanized, but they are almost being dehumanized to the point of becoming nonhuman, just another step in the evolutionary ladder somewhere between humankind and our primate ancestors. This type of cruelty and lack of compassion truly reveals that the horrendous cruelty and immorality of war can be matched by the immorality of cold hearted indifference and inaction.
The aftermath of this violence leaves Paul, as well as the entire Tutsi community with many dilemmas and conclusions. The Hutus’ relentless and cruel slaughter, most often by machete, was motivated only from hatred, and completely disproportionate to the political purpose, which left the Tutsis to wonder how and from where this pure hatred unleashed, and whether it had always existed. If so, they had to wonder, if it was harbored deep within the Hutu people, whether this same hatred existed within all people, and how it could be prevented from being unleashed again. This question seemed quite warranted when while Paul and the Tutsi refugees he housed tried to escape to behind the frontlines of the Tutsi rebel forces. As they approached the frontlines of the two warring parties, Paul and the Tutsis saw an equally large number of Hutus who inhabited the Tutsi controlled area of Rwanda that were trying to flee to safety behind the Hutu frontline. These same refugees seemed to be suffering almost as much at the hands of the scorned Tutsi rebels.
Additionally, through the Hutus’ heinous actions, Paul comes to the realization that the rest of the world does not care in the least about the Tutsis’ cruel and inhumane destruction and near eradication from the planet. As the protagonist’s hopes for intervention fade, he must understand that the Western world is not only racist, but uncaring about his people’s hardships and his people altogether.
Thus, it can be seen that in Hotel Rwanda one learns valuable lessons about the morality of war. One learns that not only is war highly immoral, but that even this nearly intolerable cruelty can be matched by the even more inhumane act of indifference and non-interference in the face of such cruelty. This type of cruelty and lack of compassion truly reveals that the horrendous cruelty and immorality of war can be matched by the immorality of cold hearted indifference and inaction toward that immense cruelty.
