Blog # 2 Hotel Rwanda

           
         The film that I watched for this second blog post was Hotel Rwanda.  I watched this movie because the first time I watched it I found it very interesting.  I also picked this intercultural communication film because it was only in recent history, the early 1990s, that the events in the movie took place.  From the interpretive perspective, I found three cultural patters as I analyzed the film.  These three patterns were gender, ethnicity, and class. 

            Gender was the first pattern because very early on in the movie there was a clear cut distinction between men and women.  The men in the movie, including Paul who was the manager of the hotel, were very much business men, wearing suits and acting professional.  This is minus the rebels of course.  Throughout the entire movie, Paul always wore a suit.  I found this interesting because he is attempting to save the lives of over 1,000 refugees; however he still maintains his business-like appearance.  Even towards the end of the movie Paul states “Soon all this will be over; what if I lose my job?”  (Hotel Rwanda, 2005) It is evident that Paul is engaged in his job and cares very deeply for the hotel.

            The second pattern I recognized was ethnicity.  This was apparent in the Hutu and Tutsi genocidal conflict that occurs.  It was interesting that even though these two groups of people were of the same nationality, it truly didn’t matter which country they were from, but simply which group they identified with.  In some instances when the Hutus were attempting to eliminate the Tutsis, even a Hutu would abuse a Hutu if they supported a Tutsi.  Although this may be difficult to follow by simply reading, it is another interesting factor that occurs throughout the movie.  Paul has hope throughout the film that someone from a different country will intervene.  He tells the press at his hotel “I am glad you shot this footage; now the world can intervene”  (Hotel Rwanda, 2005). However, the world didn’t intervene for the most part and let hundreds of thousands die in the meantime.

            The final pattern in Hotel Rwanda was class. The hotel before the refugees started staying there was supposed to be a higher class resort.  In the end however it turns out to be a safe haven for families that would otherwise have been killed outside the gates of this newly formed community. Paul explains to them in the middle of the movie that “We must shame them into sending help” (Hotel Rwanda, 2005). What he is referring to is the refugees calling everyone possible so they could be rescued from the hotel.

            These three patterns and the interpretive approach to intercultural communication reveal that this human experience, referring to the genocide that occurred, was not predetermined nor could it have been easily predicted (Martin & Nakayama, 2012). Although the behavior of the genocide could now be explained and described, it couldn’t have been predicted, according to the interpretive approach. 

            One limitation to this perspective however is that those researchers describing the events are more than likely foreigners. Although this may be a benefit, it can also be viewed as a limitation since they might not have a firsthand account of the events that took place.   This limitation and interpretive perspective as a whole fails to address why the genocide couldn’t have been foreseen.  We can assume that the events of the genocide built on each other meaning that one day a leader didn’t step out and say let’s kill almost one million people.  Rather events took place that could’ve predicted the genocide and this leader or leaders could’ve been captured or killed prior to the mass killings. 

            Moving forward what we need to learn is that although the interpretive perspective may be beneficial in some instances, it is not by any means perfect.  This is due mainly to the fact that it doesn’t strive to predict behavior, rather it simply explains it. 

             

References

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2012). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed).

            Boston, MA: Mcgraw Hill

George, T. (Director) (4 February, 2005) Hotel Rwanda. [Motion Picture] United States of America: Lions Gate Films.

Cristian C. (September 17, 2006) Hotel Rwanda Trailer. Retrieved from:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYwuXvA589A