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When the Levees Broke

Review By: Michael Dance
MichaelDance@TheCinemaSource.com

While Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth made all the headlines this year, a more urgent and epic documentary slipped through the cracks, not even getting a theatrical release: Spike Lee’s four-hour Katrina opus When the Levees Broke.

The bottom line: see this movie. It aired on HBO and at the Toronto and Venice Film Festivals, but now it’s out on DVD, so go buy it, rent it, whatever. It needs to be seen.

Hurricane Katrina was a disaster of such epic proportions on so many levels – first the hurricane itself, then the levees breaking, then the famously botched job by FEMA. Then there were the lootings, followed by the exaggerations of the lootings by the press. Then the video of Bush a few days before the hurricane being briefed that the levees would break. Then Kanye West’s famous outburst on national TV: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” Then Barbara Bush’s comments at the Astrodome: “So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway. This is working very well for them.” So much more, and Lee covers it all.

Luckily, he’s a skilled filmmaker, and his film is perhaps the most moving I’ve seen all year. Subtitled “A Requiem in Four Acts”, the documentary is split into four one-hour segments, and is shot in a typical documentary format, with some great hurricane footage and plenty of talking heads. Lee doesn’t go for many flashy theatrics; he keeps it simple and lets the story get told.

We’re introduced to many of the victims themselves, and learn their stories, but also hear from politicians (such as New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin), engineers, and famous New Orleans residents such as Wynton Marsalis. And background music, mostly trumpets and piano, permeates through the whole documentary in a sublimely haunting fashion.

Occasionally, the pacing does slow to a bit of a crawl, with a few too many musical interludes of musicians playing in the wreckage or at benefits. Then again, with music such an integral part of New Orleans culture, the documentary would be remiss not to emphasize it. At four hours, plus the special features which bring it to almost six, it can be hard to sit through. But by breaking the film into the four acts, Lee makes it comprehensive while also being accessible.

Special Features:

The special features include a “105-minute epilogue” and a photo montage. (Yes, I suppose only a four-hour documentary could call an extra 105 minutes an “epilogue.) While that bit is up to par with the main feature, the big treat among the special features is Lee’s commentary tracks over all four acts. In these, he lets go of any notion of objectivity and lets his opinions fly, to informative and entertaining effect. He critiques each of his interview subjects, calling them out ...