When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts

Star Review

When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States at the end of August 2005, Spike Lee was at the Venice Film Festival. He watched CNN and BBC News coverage of the events with disbelief and soon afterwards began preparation of the documentary that was eventually broadcast on HBO a year later. When the Levees Broke is structured as a requiem in four acts which explore the before and after, the whys and the wherefores of what happened to New Orleans and its people.
What emerges is a history of neglect and a failure to learn from previous floods in 1927 and 1965. 'NOLA' (New Orleans, Louisiana) is an African-American city that has long been treated as second-class by federal authorities and Lee knows how to bring that point home. Fans of his previous documentary, uncovering the scandal of 4 Little Girls murdered by a white fire-bomber during the Civil Rights struggle in the early 1960s, will be pleased to learn that Spike and his editor Sam Pollard are on top form again. The approach here is more restrained with only a couple of visual jokes lampooning the hapless George Bush.
Witnesses tell the story in their own words, illustrated by news footage and carefully shot original material. Four hours speeds by helped by a diverse selection of articulate, angry and emotional interviewees, who clearly feel comfortable with Lee's crew, and by some superb musical sequences. New Orleans is the home of jazz and other forms of popular music and composer Terence Blanchard, Lee's long term collaborator, is a New Orleans resident who here has a huge personal investment. The presentation of New Orleans is devastating and deeply moving. The combination of image and music is also very beautiful.
Spike Lee has plenty of critics and they have already moved to reject his analysis of what happened. But he has also inspired many others and high quality documentary filmmaking like this deserves the widest audience possible.

Roy Stafford on 12th July 2007

View all 12 of Roy Stafford’s reviews

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Film Description

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, director Spike Lee, like many who watched the unfolding drama on television news, was shocked not only by the scale of the disaster, but by the slow, inept and disorganized response of the emergency and recovery effort. In this four part chronicle, tagged as "an American tragedy', he recounts the story of one of America's most profound natural disasters. In addition to revisiting the hours leading up to the arrival of category 5 hurricane Katrina before it hit the coast of Louisiana, his film tells the personal stories of those who lived to talk about it, and at the same time explores the underbelly of a nation still divided along race and class lines.

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• 3 discs.

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