Shake Hands With the Devil follows the life of General Romeo Dallaire during the Rwandan genocide. This film depicts Dallaire’s frustrated efforts on trying to prevent and ultimately put a stop to the genocide, but instead he is met with selfish nations that don’t want to risk their own men, but are fine with the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Rwandans. Dallaire is constantly met with orders not to intervene in Hutu-Tutsi war by his superiors even when he is given information that the French have been supplying the Hutu militia with illegal weapons. The gruesome sights that he must witness take an emotional toll on him and he must resort to cutting himself, to distract his emotional pain with physical pain. By the end, even when the war is over Dallaire has to live with knowing he could have done something to stop the genocide, and saved hundreds of thousands of live.
This was an incredibly detailed film as it really focused on the history of the genocide and what was done the UN peacekeeping forces. The depiction of the peacekeeping forces’ point of view was amazing as it showed that these men although they didn’t do anything to stop the genocide, they were truly trying to and they were even killing themselves mentally for not being able to stop such terror. Roy Dupuis did a very good job as Dallaire as he acted like a strong man, who was able to stand up to villains like the Hutu militia responsible for the genocide as well as he was able to show the emotional anguish that Dellaire must have had.
Natural light was also used effectively as when outside the characters were really visible, but sometimes when indoors the shadows would create a dark feeling to the scene and create emphasis in the danger of the scene. Examples of this are when he goes in to negotiate with the three Hutu leaders and the lighting makes the men look evil and whenever Dallaire is talking to psychiatrist and the lighting is dark to emphasise Dallaire’s inner turmoil. Real sound was also used very effectively when you could hear the mortars and bombs going off in the area, as it adds a sense of danger and impending death. This is really important as when Dallaire is calling New York to ask for troops, the man on the other end who is sitting in a quiet office, cannot hear Dallaire because the UN building is constantly shaking because of the warfare. With this the director is trying to show how the American’s had a complete disconnect with the war as they felt they were too good to help out and that they had no idea what was really going on there.
Setting was incredibly well used in this film as it was set in all the exact locations in Rwanda where everything happened in the film. This adds a high sense of realism as well as the fact that the real Rwanda is shown as a beautiful and serene place. The war then creates a sense of shock to movie as how could such a beautiful land be facing such a disgusting event. Overall, this was great films to show the history of the Rwandan genocide and all the efforts that were put in by the UN forces. I would rate this film an 8/10 and I would recommend this film to anyone who has ever been interested in the events of the Rwandan genocide as this is a great history lesson.
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