Hotel Rwanda (2004)
94%RT Audience Score: 94%
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 3 Oscars
16 wins & 49 nominations total
A sobering and heartfelt tale about massacre that took place in Rwanda while most of the world looked away.
Hotel Rwanda is a movie that will make you laugh, cry, and feel all the emotions in between. Don Cheadle’s performance is nothing short of amazing, and it’s no wonder he was nominated for an Oscar. The film does a great job of showing the true face of human barbarity and heroism, and it’s a story that needs to be told. While some critics may say the movie is too mired in movie-of-the-week sensibilities, I think it’s a powerful and important film that everyone should see. So grab some tissues and get ready for a rollercoaster of emotions.
Production Company(ies)
United Artists Lions Gate Films, Industrial Development Corporation, of South Africa
Distributor
United Artists
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Kigali, Rwanda
MPAA / Certificate
Rated PG-13 on appeal for violence, disturbing images and brief strong language
Year of Release
2005
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:DTS Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:2.35 : 1
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Runtime:2h 1m
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Language(s):English, French, Kinyarwanda
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Country of origin:United States, United Kingdom, Italy, South Africa
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Dec 22, 2004 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 12, 2005
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
Hotel Rwanda, Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Joaquin Phoenix, Nick Nolte, Desmond Dube, David O’Hara, Terry George, A Kitman Ho, Keir Pearson, Drama, PG-13, United Artists, $23.5M, reviewed by David Ansen, Dan Jolin, Philippa Hawker, Scott Tobias, Nick Schager, Steven D Greydanus, Richard Propes, Mark Steyn, Nick Rogers, Joaquin Phoenix, reviewed by Cole Smithey, Amber Wilkinson, genocide, Rwanda, ethnic cleansing, refugees, U.N., violence, massacre, heroic, tragedy, sobering, heartfelt, Oscar nomination, best actor, raw, naked, painful, humanity, Western films, Africa, humanitarianism, Schindler’s List, true face of human barbarity, true face of human heroism, useless, combat, loose ends, individual heroism, insanity, evil
Worldwide gross: $33,882,243
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $51,635,974
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,310
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 5,630,968
US/Canada gross: $23,530,892
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $35,860,687
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,211
US/Canada opening weekend: $100,091
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $152,537
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,775
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $17,500,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $26,669,708
Production budget ranking: 1,223
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $14,361,638
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $10,604,627
ROI to date (est.): 26%
ROI ranking: 1,264
Sophie Okonedo – Tatiana Rusesabagina
Joaquin Phoenix – Jack
Nick Nolte – Colonel Oliver
Desmond Dube – Dube
David O’Hara – David
Director(s)
Terry George
Writer(s)
Terry George, Keir Pearson
Producer(s)
A. Kitman Ho, Terry George
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 3 Oscars
16 wins & 49 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees
All Critics (192) | Top Critics (50) | Fresh (174) | Rotten (18)
Cheadle, in his richest role since Devil in a Blue Dress, burrows deep inside this complex man, who discovers in himself a strength he never knew he possessed as he faces the disillusion of all the “civilized” notions he believes in.
July 6, 2010
David Ansen
Newsweek
TOP CRITIC
Who cares about overdone orchestral blasts or signpost-waving lines of dialogue when such raw, naked, painful humanity is displayed by Don Cheadle in the central role?
April 1, 2006 | Rating: 4/5
Dan Jolin
Empire Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Cheadle has an Oscar nomination for best actor. But this isn’t a grandstanding portrayal: it is a performance at the service of the work.
January 17, 2006 | Rating: 4/5
Philippa Hawker
The Age (Australia)
TOP CRITIC
Showing traces of the well-meaning paternalism that dogs many Western films about Africa, Hotel Rwanda doesn’t go far enough in indicting Europeans and Americans for protecting their own while failing to intervene in time to stop the mass killings.
September 26, 2005
Scott Tobias
AV Club
TOP CRITIC
Incapable of honestly confronting its ugly subject matter.
May 4, 2005 | Rating: C
Nick Schager
Lessons of Darkness
TOP CRITIC
Here, now, is the true face of human barbarity, and the true face of human heroism. Not in the now-distant mythology of World War II…
May 2, 2005 | Rating: A
Steven D. Greydanus
Decent Films
TOP CRITIC
Don Cheadle absolutely, 100% deserves the Oscar for Best Actor.
September 11, 2020 | Rating: 4.0/4.0
Richard Propes
TheIndependentCritic.com
Remarkably, the director Terry George and his co-writer Keir Pearson have pulled it off, rooting the big picture of anonymous murder in one small precise close-up.
February 3, 2018
Mark Steyn
The Spectator
Like “Schindler’s List,” “Hotel Rwanda” shows how the madness of genocide and war converted one man’s context of wealth and success from capitalism to humanitarianism. Don Cheadle honors Paul Rusesabagina by tapping his brave face and internal rage.
September 24, 2010 | Rating: 4/4
Nick Rogers
The Film Yap
potentially fantastic material…unfortunately, [Terry] George’s attempt is too mired in movie-of-the-week sensibilities…to do any justice to its subject matter
August 17, 2010 | Rating: 1.5/4
Jay Antani
Cinema Writer
Don Cheadle gives a beautifully restrained tour de force performance as a singular voice of reason at the epicenter of writer/director Terry George’s depiction of Rwanda’s outbreak of genocide in 1994 when Hutu militias slaughtered one million Tutsis with
April 16, 2009 | Rating: A-
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
This is a solid film, but it is the truth that holds the power, not the direction.
December 7, 2007 | Rating: 3.5/5
Amber Wilkinson
Eye for Film…
Plot
1994. In Rwanda, the classification of the native population into Hutus and Tutsis, arbitrarily done by the colonial Belgians, is now ingrained within Rwandan mentality despite the Rwandan independence. Despite the Belgians having placed the Tutsis in a higher position during the Belgian rule, they have placed the majority Hutus in power after independence. Paul Rusesabagina, a Hutu married to a Tutsi, Tatiana Rusesabagina, is the House Manager of the Hotel Des Milles Collines in Kigali. The Milles Collines, owned by Sabena (the national airline of Belgium), is a four-star hotel catering primarily to wealthy white westerners. Paul, who knows how to work the system to run the hotel effectively for its guests and for Sabena, is proud that most of the Caucasians who he meets in this professional capacity treat him with respect. After a specific incident, the relative calm between the Tutsi guerrillas and government-backed Hutu militia takes a turn. Paul’s thought that the native population as a whole who are not directly involved in the conflict will be protected as the UN peacekeeping forces and thus the world is watching doesn’t happen as the western world largely evacuates from Rwanda and abandons the natives. Such begins what will become a genocide of the Tutsi population. Paul, who is able to get his immediate family to the hotel which is still largely seen as a place of sanctuary, will have to use the considerable skills he has used to run the hotel as well as he has instead to keep himself, his family and any others taking refuge at the hotel alive, whether they be Hutu or Tutsi. Meanwhile, Colonel Oliver, a Canadian heading the UN peacekeeping forces, and Pat Archer with the Red Cross do what they can to assist Paul and to get people to safety first to the hotel then out of the country, while field journalists, like photographer Jack Daglish, try to bring the genocide back into the global media to have the world once again care about what is going on.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Don Cheadle’s performance in Hotel Rwanda earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
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