Hotel Rowanda...anyone remember it? How accurate/factual is it?

[greenbriar]

why is it PG 13?



Thank you for your responses...confirms my original thoughts that it was too much for a classroom setting~

Will find something different for the 2 days I will be out due to surgery

[NMDemDist2]

1. it claims to be based on a true story

and the rating is for violence and language I would think

good movie but sad that people treat each other so badly

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear greenbriar!

Oh, I remember it, all right...

It's PG-13 for violence. There's a feeling of that all throughout...scary, tough movie.

I believe it's accurate, too...

I only saw it once, but I remember it.

It depicted a dreadful situation, and one that seems to always exist somewhere in the world, alas...

:scared:

[maddezmom]

3. I saw it and it was very graphic

Hotel Rwanda
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395169/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Rwanda

[SharonAnn]

8. Not nearly as graphic as what many people saw and reported.

Imagine the brutal murder, often with machetes, of a million people by their neighbors.

I'm not sure I can even imagine it.

[maddezmom]

10. agree, but I was responding to why it was PG-13

[ColbertWatcher]

4. From what I remember, no one disputed its veracity.

However, since it was a movie "based on real events" (as opposed to being a documentary), there was no way for it to be complete.

[greenbriar]

5. the reason I ask is that I have to have surgery and will be out for a couple of days

and wondered if it would be too much for 13 year olds in a classroom setting

These kids are not the "sheltered protected" kids

these kids probably have more street knowledge than many of us do

[etherealtruth]

11. I would be extremely upset

if someone showed that movie to my (almost)13 year old, at school. I found the violence to be graphic and very disturbing, something a child should see with a parent.

[SheilaT]

13. It is much too intense

for 13 year olds in a classroom setting. There are many, many movies out there that would be much more appropriate.

Another reason it is not appropriate for that age, is that the political setting would need a great deal of explanation. Keep in mind that PG-13 does NOT mean "Pretty Good Movie, Your 13 year old will love it." No, it means Parental Guidance suggested, not suitable for those under 13.

There is this constant claim that kids today are more sophisticated or mature than earlier generations, and I just don't buy that. There's a superficial appearance of sophistication because of all that they've been exposed to through the mass media, but they are still emotionally and psychologically 13.

[uppityperson]

16. I would recommend getting parental permission ahead of time.

And make sure to do follow up stuff on it. Don't just show it and let it go. It would be a good starting point for world visions, peer pressure, etc.

[Posteritatis]

18. I *might* be willing to drop something like Hotel Rwanda on 11th or 12th graders

Thirteen year olds, not so much.

The street knowledge of any American or Canadian kid is peanuts compared to the things that happened in central Africa that year.

[geckosfeet]

6. It's a heartbreaking movie based on actual events. It is of course, a movie

and has been glamorized. You don't get the full impact of the smell of gunpowder, burning flesh, rotting corpses and blood in the streets. But you do get a sense for the political upheaval, chaos and abandonment that took place during that time.

[WolverineDG]

7. I saw it with someone who worked on the war crimes trials

She was sobbing through the whole thing. She didn't say anything about it being inaccurate & her response suggested to me it was dead on.

dg

[jannyk]

9. The movie is fairly accurate, but....

if you want the whole unvarnished account of what transpired, may I recommend "The Ghosts of Rwanda'. This documentary, by PBS's Frontline, marked the 10th anniversary of the atrocities and contains interviews with many that were there. It is the most disturbing 'movie' I have ever seen.

Background and clips here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/

Available from Netflix to rent, but not for child viewing - unless you want to induce nightmares and questions you will never be able to answer.

[Posteritatis]

12. Also, General Dallaire's book on his experience there

"Shake Hands With The Devil" should be on everyone's reading list.

[jannyk]

14. I haven't read it, but have seen many

interviews of Romeo Dallaire. The poor man was broken by the experience and the impotency of the UN to intervene. More recently, he seems to have accepted that it was not his fault, but for years he blamed himself.

I'll get the book and read it - thanks.

[Posteritatis]

17. I'm impressed by the guy

He's put himself back together admirably since, but is still pretty clearly defined by what he saw, what he did, and what he wished he'd done. I saw him speak in London, Ontario last year; he's a pretty intense and driven person, to say the least, and is still a major backer of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. He and Samantha Power have influenced each other quite a bit (which is part of why I was ecstatic to see her wind up in the State Department).

The talk was worth it for the Q&A alone; he took some pretty good/complex questions and took his time giving some good answers. (My personal favorite was when a serving soldier in the Canadian military asked him when it is appropriate - or necessary - to mutiny in humanitarian missions.)

I'm seeing him again in Halifax next week, and the ticket prices are all going to the NGO coalitions dealing with child soldiers. I'm quite looking forward to it.

[uppityperson]

15. "Sometimes in April" is a good movie about it also. Part of it takes place at the Hotel.

It is more graphic, more emotional even than Hotel Rwanda, approaches it from a different viewpoint, sort of. Deals with the same issues in a bit different manner, of people still out in towns and the country. Heartbreaking and amazing what people live through. It includes the (world court?) hearings afterwards, people testifying there and at community courts.

[11 Bravo]

19. Paul Rusesabagina spoke at my school. I had the homor of shaking his hand and ...

introducing him to the student body. He is a small man, but a towering presence. As for the PG-13 rating, much of the movie was emotionally wrenching.

[Township75]

20. Search NPR's files and you should find a story on this

They interviewed some people who lived through it and they said that it wasn't their story.

It was a long time ago so I can't remember much. I never saw the movie either, so that didn't help. One thing I do remember the people saying is that in the movie some people go to a church for help and are turned away. According to those interviewed, they did get help from churches.

If my memory serves me correctly, it was largely personal accounts of what happened and wasn't filled with polls or anything.