| When the Levees Broke - A Requiem In Four Acts (Documentary) | 
 enlarge | Actors: Spike Lee, Sam Pollard
Studio: HBO Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $13.98
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (91 reviews)
Sales Rank: 4012
Format: Box Set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 256 minutes
Number Of Items: 3
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.8 x 1
MPN: HBOD93973D
UPC: 026359397325
EAN: 0026359397325
ASIN: B000J10F14
Release Date: December 19, 2006
Theatrical Release Date: August 16, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Description
One year after Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans, director Spike Lee presents a four-hour, four-part chronicle recounting, through words and images, one of our country?s most profound natural disasters. In addition to revisiting the hours leading up to the arrival of Katrina, a Category 5 hurricane before it hit the coast of Louisiana, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts tells the personal stories of those who lived to tell about it, at the same time exploring the underbelly of a nation where the divide along race and class lines has never been more pronounced.
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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 86 more reviews...
 Best Documentary I Have Ever Seen October 19, 2008
When the Levees Broke - A Requiem in Four Acts documentary is one of the most touching documentaries I have ever seen. I have seen many works by Spike Lee but I do believe this is the best I have seen from him directing. I know many people may think they know what happened during Hurricane Katrina but he takes you on a journey through the lives of the victims and their families. Not only does he ask people that were devastated the most in the Ninth Ward but he also gets the inside scoop from the wealthy people living in the French Quarter. I believe he takes a much unbiased approach at filming this documentary. His main focus is to get the facts out in the open and to make people aware of what was going on when neither FEMA nor the President of our country, George W. Bush, were there to respond in an appropriate fashion. What many people do not know is that they were warned that they levees were not strong enough to hold any kind of weather phenomenon like Katrina long before the hurricane struck the coast. No one was there to listen and to respond to what was really needed by the people.
Spike Lee does a great job with incorporating how Mayor Ray Nagin reacted accordingly to the situation his city was placed in. All of the people interviewed for the documentary made you feel as though you were part of their lives. It is truly remarkable the struggles they had to go through during and after Katrina. It is also astonishing to see how people do not realize this effected New Orleans economy and their faith in our government and why. After watching the documentary I found a brand new respect for New Orleans and their culture. I immediately went down to help in whatever way I possible could even though it has been a few years since the hurricane. There is still plenty of work to be done their but it is home to many many people and I know not to take that for granted.
I suggest this documentary to anyone who is ready to be touched and witness how a community comes together in a time of need and maintain faith and each oth
 An American Tragedy October 12, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
"When the Levees Broke"
An American Tragedy
Amos Lassen
Hurricanes Katrina changed many lives and ravaged a great American city. As I sat down to watch Spike Lee's "When the Levees Broke", many images were still in my mind as I did not evacuate New Orleans until a full week and a day after the storm hit. I so wanted to be able to see what I did not have a chance to while without electricity and stranded on the fourth floor of my building. I watched with my mouth open as New Orleans was being washed away.
Lee's film is made up of four episodes--the coming storm, immediately after, adjusting and the return. Each is mind boggling to watch as the national government fumbles and New Orleanians suffer. Here was a nation that did not know what to do in the time of disaster. The movie broke my heart many times and over and over again. To see the frustration of the people and the ineptitude of the government is just something that is hard to describe.
Spike Lee comes across as the voice of reason and we listen and watch in horror. Lee looks at what happened during Katrina as a conspiracy and he shocks us time and again. He shows how the federal government failed and did so in the name of pure greed. Lee even implies that the levees were bombed so that the black population of the 9th ward of the city would leave and that white contractors would then move in and redevelop the area. Of course, Lee does show partiality to his own.
For those who did not experience Katrina this is a must see and Lee shows it all to us. It is not an easy movie to see but it is an important one.
 I only received two of the four Acts September 21, 2008
Spike Lee did an outstanding job on this documentory, and I felt it was very balanced in its approach. I just wish I had known that I was only going to receive Acts 2 & 3 of the documentory. Other than this discrepancy, it was a great DVD. I love the depiction of our present administration during this crisis, and our President's mother, wow!
 Please Give Some Balance September 20, 2008
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
I was born and raised in New Orleans. Though I haven't lived there for over thirty-five years, I maintain close family and personal ties there.
My sister lost her home and her life possessions to Katrina. So did two uncles, four aunts, two cousins and their children, and various in-laws and relatives of in-laws. They were all white and middle-class. So much for Spike Lee's poverty and racism thesis.
My sister and a number of relatives lived in the Lakeview section of New Orleans, which is over 95% white and which Katrina thoroughly inundated. Spike Lee interviewed only one family from Lakeview and they were black. My other relatives lived in St. Bernard Parish, largely populated by whites, on the outskirts of New Orleans. Flash floods there attributed to storm surges up MR GO (Mississippi-River Gulf Outlet) left uncountable scenes of houses swept off there foundations and vehicles overturned or embedded/covered in the remains of unidentifiable debris. Spike Lee showed none of this, but he lingered over similar scenes in the iconic Lower 9th Ward to demonstrate the white man's perfidy toward his black brethren, especially by drawing parallels between levees dynamited by white business cliques in the 1927 flood and rumors of explosions heard along the Industrial Canal next to the Lower 9th Ward during the height of Katrina. Instead, he did not once mention that the black political power structure the city has enjoyed for more than thirty years barely lifted a finger to alleviate the awful plight of the poor black population of New Orleans. The mayor, Ray Nagan, and his cronies got a free pass and the white political establishment received all the blame.
The black majority of New Orleans suffered mightily from Katrina, but so did its white minority, who in Mr Lee's estimation had it too good for too long and didn't warrant sympathy.
 Katrina Review September 8, 2008
The video was good but did not show enough of the mayor's and the goverments failure to help these poor people. I would like to have seen more footage and less talking. We especially didn't need Reverend Al. He is always there for the photo shoot but has he done anything to help?
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