Shake Hands with the Devil (2007) poster
2007 · drama · history

Shake Hands with the Devil

Directed by Roger Spottiswoode1h 52m2007
ElsewhereIMDb7.64kRT50%Metacritic57
  • heavy
  • measured
  • extreme
  • bleak
  • cold
Movie DNA

Heavy, measured, extreme drama / history, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, epic, cold, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

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In 1993, Canadian Lieutenant General Roméo Dallaire was sent by the United Nations to Rwanda as commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). Its mission, to ensure the ceasefire, is underfunded, excessively bureaucratized and made up of military units which come from dozens of countries and which each have a very different program... These are Lt Gen Dallaire's efforts to stop the madness of the Rwandan Genocide, despite the complete indifference of his superiors.

Our read · Shake Hands with the Devil (2007) reads as a heavy, measured, grounded drama · history entry — extreme in intensity, epic-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of Shake Hands with the Devil

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What watching it is actually like.

You want the true story of a general's desperate stand against the Rwandan genocide.

ends devastatingit will wreck youa slow buildgrips by minute 18attention 4/5earns its length
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upgraphic violencechild peril

Skip it tonightSkip if graphic genocide violence and bureaucratic failure will wreck your evening.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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