Spinning Rwanda: Hollywood's Trilogy of Gloom
Published May 24, 2005
A character in Peck's film suggests something that's always rattled around in my head, i.e. the West doesn't care about a bunch of blacks and certainly not Africans. Besides, unlike Iraq, Rwanda doesn't have shit. At least not anything that the U.S. wants. That was my mindset going into the theatre to see Hotel Rwanda this past winter. It's a brilliant film that left the entire theatre with nothing to say as the audience poured out, homeward bound for an evening of deep introspection at home, trying not to have nightmares. But Six and Vani and I agreed that we were glad we went to see it. It was important.
Then last week Vani gave me Sometimes in April. Another take, another perspective, another brilliantly acted film, another heartbreaker. I told Six to rent it. We all had another bad night but agreed that we were glad the film was made. It was important.
The two films go together pretty well. Despite being produced independent of one another, to see one without seeing the other is to cheat yourself. Hotel Rwanda is sort of the John the Baptist of the two films; see it first. Then, when you've had time to absorb it all and the luxury to recuperate, spend a couple hours with Sometimes in April. If you do, you'll be mad as hornets, frothing at the mouth about Bill Clinton, among others, and how we didn't want another Somalia. Then watch Black Hawk Down.
A Ridley Scott film based on journalist Mark Bowden's book, you can count on Black Hawk Down to be a stark rendering of a brutal battle that took place in Somalia two years prior to the Rwanda mass murders. The situations, of course, were totally different, but as I watched the final piece of an unintentional tryptich, something surprising happened. I found myself starting to understand--just a tiny bit--why the U.S. might have been so uneager to do the right thing.
Though the African people depicted in Black Hawk Down were the animalistic, inhuman creatures one rightly fears and loathes, there were other Somalians pictured near the end. The ones whom the U.S. ostensibly went to help. Innocent civilians with nothing, nothing to lose, nothing to win, no thing. It reminded me that sometimes my government has a humanitarian agenda. It also added to my perspective: I see now why when the U.S. took on the Somali warlords, the deaths of 300,000 civilians was easy to label genocide and why, when more than twice that number died brutally a couple years later in another country, the West ran down the time clock by debating the difference between "genocide"--which necessitates ballsy action--and "acts of genocide," which is a neutered nuance one can filibuster 'til the cows have come home and withered into beef jerky.
- Spinning Rwanda: Hollywood's Trilogy of Gloom
- Published: May 24, 2005
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Video
- Writer: mpho
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Not to be rude, but I'd recommend against Dallaire's book and his hero-posturing.
Philip Gourevitch's We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda is a good alternative.
Gourevitch's book is definitely good but I would disagree with your assessment of Dallaire as "hero-posturing". I wouldn't call Shake Hands with the Devil a brilliant read (Dallaire uses far to many obscure UN acronyms for my taste) but it does a good job of capturing the essence and hopelessness of the situation. Given the lack of support for the mission, Dallaire did about as well as anyone could, to his own cost.
The ending of Sometimes in April wonders if after the next genocide it will take another 10 years for HBO films and the like to be made before people realize, yet again
Great opinion,mpho
thanks, aaman. While I appreciate the reading suggestions (I haven't read any of them yet), my rambling sort of point was that I'd rather have Hollywood tackle these historical moments long after the fact than not at all because if once-current events don't make it into what we think of as entertainment venues, a huge cross-section of the population will never learn anything, even a distilled, watered down version of events. I'm sure more people have seen the box office smash Hotel Rwanda than the total number who have read Shake Hands With The Devil, Gourevitch's book, and Bowden's book added together. I mean here I am, acting like I know it all, and I haven't even read their books. It's easier to get someone to commit to 2 1/2 hours of voyeuristic activity than to push a book on somebody, so why not make the most of it?
by the way, French's book, A Continenet for the Taking," is subtitled "The Tragedy and Hope of Africa." While it's not specific to Rwanda, French talks a lot of things that happened all over Africa during the 1990s. Foreign Affairs has a great review at http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20040501fabook83355/howard-w-french/a-continent-for-the-taking-the-tragedy-and-hope-of-africa.html which is different from the link I chose in my blog post.
Great post. I'm Rwandan so it's always good to see something like this. And I agree with Dean- both books are important in their own way, although Gourevitch's will probably never be topped.
totally agree with your rwanda comments. i saw "hotel" and was devastated. yeah, i knew what had happened - had read articles & commentary. but seeing it dramatazied like that made such an impact. yep, the whole theater was sobbing, rightly so. will have to check out the other film you mentioned, when i can handle it...
Another excellent review!
One more good book to add to the list, is Toni Bambara's Those Bones Are Not My Child which isn't about Africa at all, let alone Somalia or Rwanda, but it is about race and African-American state-of-life in America (it's about the Atlanta murders) and somehow it seems to go well with the DVDs and books above. More pertinent to the subject, probably the best book is one already recommended above, We wish to inform you... which is as harrowing as Hotel Rwanda.
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I heartily recommend the book Shake Hands With The Devil by the Canadian General Romeo Dallaire for anyone who wants a serious examination about UN and US policy on Rwanda and the efects as it was seen by the guy who was in charge on the ground when the crap hit the fan.