Beyond the Gates

This film - based on the memoir "Shooting Dogs" - is, like "Hotel Rwanda" or "Blood Diamond," one of the best takes on the tribulations of Africa, specifically on the Rwandan mass murders of 1994. All the cast are in top form, as evil stares them in the face and - being mere mortals - they blink. John Hurt is the faithful priest, who loses his faith only to find it at the point of sacrifice; Hugh Dancy as the committed "activist" whose own flesh proves stronger than his best intentions; Vector Power as the African father who begs the fleeing UN unit to mercy-shoot the children in the compound. The gruesome doings of the kill-crazed "genocidaires" are portrayed realistically, as in "the Killing Fields," without sensationalistic "human rights porn." The climax is one of most chilling scenes on film outside of a classic horror movie. The use of real survivors was a plus in keeping the production's head straight. Altogether an under-rated British film that asks the rights questions - and shows we often don't have the needed answers.

This movie is not quite a documentary film, which carries a different sort of technique of getting the point across. Nor is it a "Hollywood-ized" actor-centric/ego-centric mess. It focuses on capturing the events as inspired by people who were present during the actual genocide. The main gist behind this film is how politics are often out of sync with actual events. The movie does so by presenting a movie that contains a lot of historical content.The pace of the movie is slower than you might think, although you know the end result is near and coming quickly. It shows the human struggle for morality. It even achieves this through the main characters' struggle with being virtuous despite everything going to hell around them. Why be good in the face of such evil? Where is God in this mess? And do I owe anyone anything?It also is a lot less about suspense. There is no real suspense, but yet there is a tremendous amount of fear and your nerves are tingling. This is - at least for me - because you know that it concerns something that actually happened.Appropriately, it is not about gore. It discourages me when I see an overabundance of gore to "entertain" American audiences. There should be no entertainment in someone else's death. This movie is disturbing at times, but it is done artistically, in such a way as to get the message across without over-emphasizing the brutality of physical killing. It emphasizes the brutality of doing nothing when action is required. It also emphasizes how you can't be willy-nilly in regards to ethics, for choices have consequences.In conclusion, if you are using this for educational purpose, you may want to find out preliminary information first. It does not really go into why this situation is happening here and now in 1994. It doesn't show how the conflict ended either. It is just there to get you to think about the political and ethical questions still relevant today.

This 112-minute docudrama (edited from the R-rated theatrical cut to soften some language and violence) depicts the 1994 Rwandan genocide in uber-realistic fashion. The DVD also includes a theatrical trailer and 38-minute making-of feature that emphasizes the film's noble intentions. Here we learn that director Michael Caton-Jones shot the film on its real-life Rwandan locations (unlike "Hotel Rwanda" which was filmed in South Africa with South African actors) and used genocide survivors in his cast and crew.The story is a lightly fictionalized account of a Salesian Catholic mission where 2,000 Tutsis took refuge from Hutu militias under the temporary protection of occupying Belgian U.N. peacekeeping forces who were themselves powerless to enforce peace. John Hurt conveys courageous determination in his role as Father Christopher, a Catholic missionary priest and head of the school who tries to give the refugees hope despite seeing the situation very clearly. Hugh Dancy plays an idealistic young Peace Corps-style volunteer who teaches at the school and whose naive idealism leaves him helpless to do anything effective. Both men face the moral dilemma of whether to stay in Rwanda and face death or be evacuated with other Europeans and Americans fleeing the country.This 2007 film (titled "Shooting Dogs" outside the U.S.) was produced by BBC films and has a distinctly British flavor. Other key characters include a female BBC reporter, the Belgian U.N. commander at the school, and a convent of African Salesian nuns. There are not significant amounts of onscreen violence or blood here, at least not much beyond a PG-13 level, but the imagery and content is horrifying. It's a more unflinching and less hopeful look at what happened in 1994 than the inspiring "Hotel Rwanda" with Don Cheadle, but its exploration of God's allowance of suffering makes it a deeper and more complex film. Hurt shines as the heroic priest, giving a believable portrait of faith under fire, seeking out ever-desperate ways to minister to his Rwandan flock even as the secular West abandons them.Critics gave overwhelmingly favorable reviews to "Beyond the Gates." It also won the "Heartland Truly Moving Picture Award," given at the Heartland Film Festival to many of my favorite movies. It is certainly worth a look as a compassionate exploration of the darker side of human behavior.

I only ever give 4 stars as I may have to give some one 5 stars at some point and this leaves me somewhere to go, Great item as expected.

I rank films that deal with the Rwandan Genocide in two ways: as a film, and for how it presents the genocide. As a film, "Beyond the Gates" is powerful and heartbreaking to watch as it deals with the events at the Dom Bosco School where 2,000 Rwandans had taken refuge among a Belgian contingent of UNAMIR, while the Interahamwe waited outside the gates for their chance to kill the Tutsis within. The film captures the horror, and the tragedy of the events in a heart stopping manner, both as a film, and while trying to show the world what happened as we turned our backs on these people. For its presentation of the genocide, while the film does try to focus on the horror that the West did nothing, and in fact, abandoned those under its care, leaving them to be butchered by machetes, it does it from the view of outsiders. While this is a common movie gimmick, the Rwandan genocide is best represented in film through the eyes of those who lives were in danger, and who were in the very thick of it all. Still, it does justice to recounting the events at this particular location, though it misses the opportunity to really open eyes about the genocide as a whole. Worth watching, but if you're going to watch a film on the genocide, watch "Shakes Hands With the Devil," or better, read the book of the same title.

One of the worst movies that I have seen!! The acting is extremely poor(very amateurish); and just goes on about nothing. Some of the effects are good; that's about it. Could have been a 20 mins tv show, with 10 mins of ads. Certainly not worth the money.

The DVD "Beyond the gates" was suppose to be in english and french lanquage but it is juste in english with french, spanish and english subtitle.Dans la description du DVD sur Amazon, il est écrit langage: français et anglais et sous-titre: anglais et espagnol. Mais quand j'ai reçu mon DVD, j'ai découvert qu'il n'était qu'en version original (anglais) et que les les 2 autres langues sont disponible en sous-titre seulement. Je suis déçu parce que je ne m'attendais pas à cela. J'aurais aimé le savoir d'avance.

Beyond the Gate is essential viewing for all high school students. It's a powerful portrayal of the Rwandan genocide through the eyes of a teacher and a Catholic priest. Together they attempt to make sense of the violence and injustice of the genocide. It's difficult to watch this movie without crying, feeling empathy, and feeling disgust at our imperialistic past. It's more graphic than Hotel Rwanda, but an important movie to watch and discuss.