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I agree with Pugnate on most fronts here, though I'm surprised this film dropped off the first page so quickly, despite it's drawbacks, Hotel Rwanda is a cut above films like Black Hawk Down and given that it was released in domestic cinemas I would have thought it would have been talked about a bit more.
Essentially, aside from the forgivable lapses in realism and occasional surreptitious manipulation, my real problem with this movie was the ending. Tragedy is simply not a marketable commodity in the film world anymore and frankly I think that it's a major problem.
Hotel Rwanda comes as close as mainstream films will to a tragedy, which is your traditional 'triumph against all odds' tale where one event which bucks the trend is focused upon. Schindler's List for instance, while it is a consumate film is inferior in comparison to truly honest films about the holocaust such as Shoah. Now, while these tales touch upon the madness and the horror, they always shy away from really getting into it, and prefer to leave us with a small, but significant victory amidst it all. Frankly I believe an honest, or responsible treatment of a genocidal event should leave audiences absolutely gutted, completely and unambiguously terrified and disgusted, there shouldn't be any attempt to mitigate the madness with 'but the human spirit prevailed' or 'good people can make a difference' because this cheapens the moral significance of what occurred.
I mean, I guess stories like Hotel Rwanda are more palatable, but they are not in my opinion a true attempt to grapple with the gravity of the subject matter.
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