When The Levees Broke - A Requiem In Four Acts Details

eye-opener

definitely worth a watch.Enlightening and informative.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Sobering and moving account (review for 1 and 2)

The whole thing was too long and too biased however it was powerful, sobering film making.

With just talking heads and some media footage Spike Lee builds a picture of the literal hell suffered by residents using eye witness accounts of New Orleans before, during and after hurricane Katrina swept a deadly path over the city.

I didn't pay close attention to the incident a the time and knew no details of what occured in the Big Easy over that period so the overall picture that emerged from this documentary was eye opening and many details were quite distressing. First hand stories of family and friends dying, and the sight of dead and bloated bodies left for days in the streets was emotional.

A criticism I have is that it was too heavily edited and biased. I don't mind some biase in documentaries as there is always a point the film maker is trying to get across but this seemed too much. After dignified and eloquent performances from such as Harry Belafonte, Rev Al Sharpton and Mayor Ray Nalgan and 'ordinary' citizens the tone would turn sour especially with one particularly militant female. I must admit I didnt finish disc 2 but there was no chance of a rebuttal from government sources or a chance to explain why some decisions were made ( or indeed, not made). The film did clear up some wild alegations that were made about crime in the Dome but that again was cloaked in a swipe at an authority figure, the chief of police defacto representative of the President.

However, overall I would recommend this for everyone to watch as a moving portrayal of struggling in the face of over whelming tragedy and also as a lesson in how not to do it. It, in this case, being a national reaction to disaster.