Hotel Rwanda - Movie Review

To answer your question, "can any filmmaker ever hope to approximate on film the brutal nature of the historic atrocities that Spielberg and George aimed to capture?" I would suggest checking out Elem Klimov's _Come and See_, an unbelievably powerful film about atrocities committed by the Germans in Belarus during WWII.

I always find your movie reviews interesting. They're not movie reviews. Its more an aesthetics piece than anything, comparatively analyzing a film's place in a genre or tradition, rather than as a work in and of itself. Semantics aside, I enjoyed it. I wish it was longer, though.

When I say "you," I mean Stylus, not you, Josh Timmerman. I've just read more than a few Stylus pieces that, while being very interesting, don't really cover what they say they're covering.

just thought i would second the "come and see" recommendation. it is one of the most powerful films i have ever seen, war movie or otherwise. as a straight-faced depiction of german atrocities during the second world war, i have not seen its equal.

"critic-proof due to the gravity of their subject matter" - it is apparent that Timmermann has obeyed this law in his review. Though the film does succeed in convincing me that the tragedy is worth learning about, its heavier moments are spoiled by the PG-13 treatment of them. Nick Nolte's acting is terrible and the great music that occasionally adds color to a few scenes is mostly absent from the rest of the movie.