| |  | DVD : When the Levees Broke - A Requiem In Four Acts (Documentary) |  | | | | | | | | | |
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Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: LEE,SPIKE
EAN: 0026359397325
Label: HBO Home Video
Manufacturer: HBO Home Video
Number Of Items: 3
Publisher: HBO Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: December 19, 2006
Running Time: 256 minutes
Sales Rank: 5158
Studio: HBO Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: August 16, 2006
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Editorial Review:
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
Customer Reviews Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Best Documentary I Have Ever Seen
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 ... Read More
Rating:  - An American Tragedy
"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 ... Read More
Rating:  - I only received two of the four Acts
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!
Rating:  - Please Give Some Balance
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, ... Read More
Rating:  - Katrina Review
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?
When the Levees Broke - A Requiem In Four Acts (Documentary) | | | |
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