Shooting Dogs 2006

Alan G. Artner, Chicago Tribune: Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: There's little respite from the terrible history that this film retells just a determination (made stronger by the faces we see after the credits) to tell it, to be sure that history doesn't forget. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: A gripping fictionalized account of a 1994 incident in Rwanda that became a shocking emblem of the Rwandan Hutus' mass slaughter of the Tutsis. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This is a spiritual drama, not a political one, drawing a thick line between our good intentions and the selfish choices we ultimately make. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: I think Beyond the Gates is an important film, and it's too bad that it's not a very good one. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: A difficult sell because of the way it clutches its privileged white perspective. But from any perspective, the story it tells is so dramatic, so riveting, that it's impossible to maintain any judgmental distance. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Movies about Africa often fall into this trap. Righteous indignation is the exclusive province of non-Africans. Read more

Michael Hardy, Boston Globe: Read more

Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times: Tense and gut-wrenching, Beyond the Gates is a horrifying story told with grace and compassion. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The 1994 Rwandan genocide is once again the subject of a movie. Even more so than its forerunner Hotel Rwanda, Beyond the Gates is unsparing in its depiction of that terrible time. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Beyond the Gates, with its lack of sentimentality, its tough criticism of U.N. inaction, and its cast and crew filled out with real survivors, does nicely [as a retelling of the Rwandan genocide of 1994]. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: No one would call Beyond the Gates subtle filmmaking. But the Rwandan crisis hardly calls for delicate handling, and this impassioned movie, fueled by genuine outrage, is one from the heart of director Michael Caton-Jones. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: Trumps Hotel Rwanda in its you-are-there immediacy and unflinching gaze. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: Beyond the Gates is tragedy writ large, and an indictment of the international community which did nothing to stop it. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Convincingly revisits the horror of 1994's civil war in Rwanda. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: By keeping most of the action contained to the school grounds and immediate environs, director Michael Caton-Jones creates a claustrophobic atmosphere where fear can fester. Read more

Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail: Despite its reliance on the white characters for drama, its biggest achievement is simply in revealing the sheer horror of the genocide. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: For all its righteous (and rightful) anger, Shooting Dogs is itself a curiously detached and compromised experience, unfolding stubbornly from the perspective of its white characters. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: Caton-Jones orchestrates the spiralling violence with considerable dexterity, revealing a keen understanding of how, in the wrong circumstances, human beings can and do inflict the most barbaric cruelties upon one another. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

Mark Holcomb, Time Out: By dodging cultural and political specifics in favor of a thriller-lite framework Beyond the Gates ends up serving largely as a tribute to the virtues of hindsight. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: Shooting Dogs falls into the trap of filtering an inherently African story through the eyes of a noble white protagonist. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: If its scenes of tribal violence feel overly familiar to viewers of 2004's Hotel Rwanda, its account of desperate choices made in the throes of terror remains emotionally powerful viewing. Read more