Why I Get the DVD

Saw Hotel Rwanda last weekend. Not a bad movie (Don Cheadle was very good), but there was too much over-the-top Hollywood cheese, with a ridiculously emotional wife who somewhat ruined the movie. Still, the story itself of Rwanda is fascinating (and terrible), and the images of Rwanda reminded me all too much of Guyana...but more on that tomorrow.

The Bonus Features were the best part. In them, the real-life person on whom the movie was based, Paul Rusesabagina, returns to Rwanda for the first time since he escaped. He revisited the hotel where he'd saved 1200 people's lives, then visited the Auschwitz of Rwanda where over 45,000 people were killed. Inside this building, there were creepy, porcelain-looking dolls of little children, presumably representing all the children killed in the war.

Not true, Paul calmly explained. These were the ACTUAL BODIES of children murdered in the war, which had fossilized after being buried and had been dug up as part of the memorial.

Disgusting, nasty, and moving. Paul was truly unflappable, suave in trying conditions. He's the guy I'd want negotiating with Rwandan warlords on my behalf.

As this demonstrates, there is no reason to go see a movie in the theaters any more. At home, I get incredible sound (hook up your Dolby 5.1) , I can pause whenever I want, I can watch in my underwear, I don't have to deal with terrible coughing outbursts or cell phone rings that aren't mine, AND I get the Bonus Features. Most of them are a waste, but now and then, like in Hotel Rwanda, and, memorably, in Capturing the Friedmans, the bonus features can eclipse the movie itself.