When the Levees Broke - A Requiem In Four Acts (Documentary)
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: LEE,SPIKE
EAN: 0026359397325
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: HBO Home Video
Manufacturer: HBO Home Video
Number Of Items: 3
Publisher: HBO Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: December 19, 2006
Running Time: 256 minutes
Sales Rank: 1066
Studio: HBO Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: August 16, 2006
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Examines various perspectives on the integral events that preceded and followed Katrina's passage through New Orleans, with personal accounts from survivors.
Genre: Television: HBO
Rating: NR
Release Date: 19-DEC-2006
Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com:
Director Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke is the definitive document of the unmitigated disaster that was, and is, Hurricane Katrina. It's also a contemporary manifestation of an ancient tradition: an oral history, told by the people who lived it, with no narration and only the occasional use of archival cable and broadcast news footage in addition to Lee's own film. And a grim tale it is, an 'American tragedy' subtitled 'a Requiem in Four Acts,' each of them about an hour long ('Act V,' appearing on the third of the set's three discs, is a lengthy epilogue with new material not included in the original HBO broadcast) and focusing almost exclusively on New Orleans, as opposed to the Gulf Coast region in general.
Act I sets the scene; as the hurricane nears the Crescent City, some residents leave town, while others stay behind, figuring they'll just ride the storm out (Mayor Ray Nagin's 'mandatory evacuation' order rings fairly hollow, as there's no public transportation provided for the many who don't own vehicles and thus couldn't get out even if they wanted to). The real problems begin after Katrina makes landfall on August 29, 2005. Displaced New Orleaneans crowd into the Superdome, soon to become a living hell for those stuck there; the incredibly poorly engineered levees break, flooding some 80 percent of the city; and people start dying by the hundreds, victims of drowning, lack of food, water, and medicine, and other causes. And so it goes. Act II finds the survivors struggling to keep it together while the federal, state, and local assistance they've been promised fails to show up; Act III traces the dispersal of these so-called 'refugees' (as one man puts it, 'Refugees? You mean they took away our citizenship, too?') all over the country, not knowing where their families, friends, and neighbors are, or even if they're still alive; and Act IV deals with the slow rebuilding of the city while insurance companies refuse to pay claims and money keeps going toward the Iraq war effort instead.
Several themes predominate here. One, of course, is the appalling performance of authorities on nearly every level, who ignored specific warnings about the levees and then professed ignorance after the fact; Lee doesn't have to go out of his way to make George W. Bush, FEMA chief Michael Brown, and other members of the Bush administration (not to mention his own mother) look bad, as they do an excellent job of that themselves. Another is the shameful ineptitude of the response; it's hard not to be disgusted when it's pointed out more than once that while we were able to provide supplies and assistance to Indonesians within two days of the 2004 tsunami, American citizens were virtually ignored for five days or more. Most of all, When the Levees Broke (which includes optional commentary by Lee for all four acts) leaves us feeling the sheer rage of the poor and dispossessed of New Orleans, where the population is 70 percent African-American. Confronted with the ignorance, arrogance, and callousness of the people whose job it was to protect them, they can point to just one cause: racism. --Sam Graham
Average Rating: 
Rating:
- Thorough, balanced, outstandingLee presents a thorough look at Hurricaine Katrina from all sides in incredible detail. It is long, ... Read More
Rating:
- TRUTH BE TOLD.THE TRUTH WAS TOLD IN THIS ONE.FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DONT KNOW THE WHOLE STORY,YOU HAD TO BE THERE LIKE ... Read More
Rating:
- The Levees Broke and People DiedSpike Lee struggled a bit before he was motivated to make this film for HBO. His films don't make that ... Read More
Rating:
- A must seeAfter a recent trip to New Orleans (Spring 2008) I came back and felt compelled to learn all I could about ... Read More
Rating:
- I still shutter when I watch this movie.After I watched this on HBO, I had to own it. The powerful story that is told here is not about propoganda, ... Read More
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Copyright ©2003, Mark Carey.