When watching a film about a country in Africa beset by acts of genocide you expect to see some harrowing scenes. But in Hotel Rwanda directed by Terry George in 2004 the atrocities are mostly seen in long shot or else we see only the aftermath of the mass slaughter.
There are no scenes of the kind of graphic violence that must have been a way of life for those caught up in the brutal conflict. This may come as a relief to squeamish viewers but it hardly seems to be true to the subject matter.
Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t want to see a gruesome splatter movie but I did hope that some of the harsh reality of the beleaguered country would be depicted. Confronting such horrors can help to understand the plight of the people provided it is not done in an exploitative way. By sanitising the barbarity, the movie effectively glosses over the worst aspects of the tragic events.
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