I finally got around to seeing "When the Levees Broke" Spike Lee's epic four-hour documentary about Hurricane Katrina and the incredible stories of ordinary New Orleanians who lived through the flood. It's perhaps Lee's finest piece of work, because for most of the film he simply turns on the camera, zooms in tight, and let's the victims speak.
The movie left me angry at the blind stupidity and complicity of the government. At the federal government that allowed these half-ass levees to be built in the first place, knowing that a Category 3 hurricane would breach them. At FEMA, that took weeks to get their shit together enough to formulate an inadequate response to the disaster. At the Bush administration's slow response to the tragedy that displaced a million people to all corners of the United States.
The film also inspired me with the resilience of the human spirit, and the creative ways that people found to survive and to help their neighbors along the way. The stories of the survivors alternate between raw terror, moral outrage, and surprising humor even in the darkest hours. And the elegaic music by Katrina survivor and jazz musician Terence Blanchard creates a hauntingly beautiful backdrop to the scenes and interviews.
Lee does an amazing job of portraying the unique character of New Orleans and why it's so important to rebuild this great city, and to restore the homes and neighborhoods of all of its inhabitants — even in the 9th Ward.
I wrote a Case Analysis in one of my Grad School courses reviewing the GAO’s findings of the whole mess. I want to see this film at some point because Spike Lee’s stuff is great.
After watching this, I was struck by the ungrateful attitude of the victims of the hurricane. Most were angry because the government wasn’t there 20 minutes after the storm was over to fly them to the destination of their choice. They complained about the fact that they couldn’t choose their evacuation destination. Give me a break…if you were stupid enough to stay through a mandatory evacuation then you get what you get.
Spike (in his typical racist manner) focuses almost no attention on the looting, theft and misuse of debit cards handed out by the government.
This is not a documentary, it’s propaganda.
I’m pretty blown away that you could get that impression of the victims as ungrateful to their government when clearly the government had largely failed to anticipate and react in a timely manner to the disaster. 20 minutes? People waited DAYS before any able assistance reached them. People died waiting for assistance.
I’m unclear on how you could see this as racist to simply put up a camera to people and have them tell their stories. The stories of Blacks and Whites who survived this terrible disaster that could have been avoided.
Good morning. Deeds, not words shall speak me.
I am from Poland and learning to speak English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: “Traditionally, this tends to be a signal that a reversal might be happening soon, as the nasdaq usually outperforms the sp during upmoves.”
Thank you very much ;). Ronny.