Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Phillida Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

T Y This is appreciated. And I'm glad Spike Lee has put viewers in contact with the horrible Katrina imagery. (I stowed my TV in storage 4 years ago to cut down on the idiocy in my life, so I missed footage of the disaster). But my rental place only had the first and the last dvds in the series. I missed the central 2 hours! But that oversight, sadly, has pointed out the shows problem; extrapolating from the two DVDs I saw, I feel pretty confident that I could guess the general tone, format and points of the missing DVD. It's not a very focused or structured series. I don't feel like I missed anything specific.Lee chose to roll footage of the debris and inundation, which is fine. But I wish someone else (Frontline) would do an expose on who's to blame. Like everyone else, I blame the incompetent Bush and Co. as the main culprits. But Lee keeps blame (and thus any solution) very vague. He really seems to be letting Nagin off the hook here. Even after black homeless refugees cite Nagin as a problem. For any of the Sean Penn haters, Penn was there putting himself out and helping people in danger - What were you doing?

mantarayinvasion This documentary is intensely powerful, all 4 parts of it - easily over 4 or 5 hours in total (I watched it all from beginning to end in one sitting and lost track of time). The purity of the depiction is very refreshing, free of the overbearingly pompous moral platitudes of someone like Michael Moore. No voice-over, just the just the voices of people involved in the disaster. Yes, it is clear what side the filmmaker is on. However, the way the film is produced is balanced, thought-provoking and insightful in such a way that one simply cannot argue with what it is saying. It is incredibly poignant, but there is no sentimentality here - there 's simply no need for it, because the tragedy is so stark and numbing in its extremity. The scale of the tragedy is too huge for any lens to capture, but this is probably the closest most outsiders could ever get to feeling the pain of the New Orleans people. It is clear this was an unprecedented event, and it really does require the depth and scope that a 4 or 5 hour examination makes possible. It is always compulsive viewing, and while the subject matter is impossibly dark, it does show some wonderful flashes of human strength and positivity that provide some hope. In short, it is a masterpiece of documentary film-making, and a very courageous project.** spoilers and discussion below **The first 2 parts cover the buildup to and immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It is harrowing and painful. It is incredible to see 'third-world' scenes of utter devastation and people so viciously stripped of their humanity and dignity on American soil. You will see dead bodies hideously swollen and decomposed, shell-shocked children whose last memory of their home is watching their parents die. Words honestly fail me when trying to convey the horrors depicted here. It is not easy viewing, but in a way it is our duty to watch it.Nothing can prepare you for acts 3 and 4 that cover the longer-term aftermath. This is a mind-boggling story of an entire people, community and culture sold out and literally left to rot. Families are separated and dispersed around the country, left to fend for themselves. Work on clearing up the city doesn't even start for 6+ months after the event. On top of everything else, property developers are trying to steal citizens' bare land with the government's help (it's very profitable you see). It is a shameful indictment of the corrupt and subhuman way that the US is run. To any sane person watching, there is absolutely no doubt that the government of the US does not care about its people. For this reason alone this is probably the most important film that Spike Lee will ever make.I am saddened by the criticism of this film in some of the reviews here. The film is clearly not only about black people, even though when a city has such a large black majority it is inevitable that race will become an issue. Wake up America, the only place in the world with such segregated communities was South Africa during apartheid. There are a lot of clearly shocked white people here, quite obviously feeling absolutely betrayed by the government and system they formerly believed in. It seems almost like the negative reviewers are hired ghouls of the government out to discredit this film and its maker. The more cynical would say "well, what right do these people have to receive anything for free?" - I would implore these people to watch act 4. Lawful citizens who have paid years of tax and insurance, building a livelihood out of nothing with their bare hands, are told they will get nothing - theft and fraud on a grand scale. How does this fit into the American dream? How do you know that it won't happen to you tomorrow?The most incredible thing you realise after watching this film is that somewhere along the line, life and humanity became expendable and cheaper than the paper we worship. The only thing that means anything anymore is money and power, and the only way to grow is to acquire more of it. This documentary shows how empty and destructive this philosophy actually is. I'm happy that Spike Lee still has the balls to make films like this.The other thing you're left wondering at the end is: what more does it actually take for people to wake up and realise what is happening? What is this 'freedom' that is being sold to the world with a gun to its head?By the way if you think I'm a typical internet anarcho-commie rebel, you could not be further from the truth. I work, pay taxes, bills, all the rest of it, just like any honest citizen. Read my other reviews, I'm not some kind of reactionary Infowars sheep. However I refuse to bury my head in the sand, and after watching this film you will also find it hard to do so. The truth is here, more vivid, brutal and real than CNN could ever be. You owe it to yourself to watch it.

roland-104 Spike Lee tells the story of Hurricane Katrina's toll on the people of New Orleans in this long film made for an HBO miniseries, a highly detailed account of the disaster, its antecedents and its continuing impact on the survivors. Lee has utilized a vast trove of archival footage, shot much new material, and interviewed around 100 individuals – from victims to political leaders and engineers. The version that aired on television consists of four "acts," spanning 255 minutes cumulative running time; the DVD adds an "act V – Next Movement" – another hour or so composed exclusively of further material from the interviews.The story, of course, is familiar to all of us in both its broad outline and many of the details presented here. But Lee succeeds in elaborating upon the suffering, frustrations, and often half concealed truths of the story in a manner that far exceeds what came to us through the conventional media, with its usual foreshortened reportage. It is a monumental accomplishment, a journalistic tour de force that is unparalleled in its depth and poignancy.We do learn new things. In one glaring instance, we are told that armed vigilantes formed human barriers to prevent the exodus of those departing flooded areas into a drier, safer place. We see evidence at every turn of the pathetically inadequate responses of local, state and federal government. In particular we get a first hand look at the absurdity of FEMA efforts, especially the horrid trailers that usually have been delivered too late, and, even then, are too often unfit to live in.We get a fuller picture than before of the flimsiness of the barriers to water surge erected by the Army Corps of Engineers: silly, thin little walls planted with insufficient depth, virtually begging to be knocked down, where instead broad earthen levees were needed. We are confronted by the deep pain of people returning to inspect houses that are beyond repair, filled with ugly piles of goods where once orderly rooms of furniture and other belongings had their place. The insides of these places - piled full of gruesome messes of detritus that once were articles of furniture, appliances and beloved possessions, as if some hostile giant had savagely shaken the places while holding them under water – look horridly alike.The story goes agonizingly along. And we come away wondering whether a disaster of this magnitude, had it occurred in a community not so heavily composed of underclass folks, primarily people of color, would have evoked a swifter, more supportive, and more effective response by government agencies and private insurers.Many among those interviewed have profoundly troubling stories to tell and several tales of courage and generosity. Among the most memorable voices to me were: civil engineering professor Robert Bea; composer Terence Blanchard; historian Douglas Brinkley; trial attorney Joseph Bruno; state medical examiner Louis Cataldie; Eddie Compass, former N.O. police chief; Calvin Mackie, Tulane engineering professor, speaking of the deaths of his parents seemingly brought on by the catastrophe; Wynton Marsalis; Mother Audrey Mason, who tells Barbara Bush a thing or two; Times-Picayune City Editor David Meeks; CNN reporter Soledad O'Brien; Sean Penn, recounting his personal efforts to save people stranded in their homes; actor Wendell Pierce; local radio commentator Garland Robinette; and minister Elder William Walker, Jr.Among other displaced survivors not so well known, some of the most arresting in their responses are Terence Blanchard's mother, Wilhelmina; Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, who recites her harsh poem about the event; Judith Morgan and Cheryl Livaudais, who deliver a shrill duet of nonstop slashing criticism of the whole post-storm relief effort; Kimberly Polk, who lost her 5 year old daughter; Michael Seelig…I could go on and on…Lee's focus is selective. He touches lightly on the technical and engineering issues. He offers no real analysis of the political and bureaucratic problems hampering relief efforts. He doesn't follow the story of the health care crisis or allegations of euthanasia in several cases. He doesn't follow people exiled to other cities and states to see first hand how they are faring.Lee also doesn't mention the jockeying of developers, lobbyists and politicians scheming to make money off the rebuilding process. The material Lee uses to highlight the conduct of civic leaders is closely cropped, no more comprehensive than the best news shows offered at the time. No, Lee's lens remains for the most part fixed on the suffering of the people – black, white, and mostly poor.The quality of the photography is highly variable, as you expect when footage is extracted from many sources. But the editing is generally very good. The music is a mixed bag. There are famous tunes, like Fats Domino's "Walking to New Orleans" and the traditional "St. James Infirmary" sung, surprisingly, by Marsalis. There's footage of a wonderful funeral band processing along the street in "act IV." Theme music that reoccurs throughout the entire series is from the recent movie, "Inside Man," composed by New Orleans' Terence Blanchard, the same man already mentioned among notable interviewees. Blanchard has worked with Spike Lee for years, doing the music on most of Lee 's film projects. His score in this instance is entirely fitting: it is elegiac, funereal, slowly paced, often rendered with a spare unaccompanied piano. But for some obscure reason Lee's sound mixer often decides to suddenly ratchet up the volume to the point that it can drown out what interviewees are saying and even feel enervating and painful to the ear. So one must sit with remote control in hand, constantly on the alert to turn the volume down, then later back up, to contend with this bothersome phenomenon.Despite its selective focus and the sound problems, overall this unique production is one that no informed citizen will want to miss. My grades: 8/10 (B+) (DVD seen on 02/03/07)

Lee Eisenberg I was with my host family in St. Petersburg, Russia, when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. As we watched it on the news, I was absolutely ashamed. Even if I couldn't understand every word, I could see what it looked like, and I didn't know how to explain to my host family the fact that my government abandoned the people of New Orleans.Well, even just seeing it on TV and reading about it through e-mails and over the Internet didn't prepare me for what I saw in Spike Lee's documentary "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts". When I saw just what everything looked like, I was horrified. Aside from the fact that the Crescent City will probably never be the same, the documentary makes clear that this was another example of those in charge screwing the people (certainly that looked like the case during the 1927 flood).Any logical-minded person would have to agree that George W. Bush playing the guitar while New Orleans drowned was the same sort of thing as Nero playing his fiddle while Rome burned, or Marie Antoinette saying "Let them eat cake.": it was the ultimate display of not caring. But the New Orleanians interviewed weren't neutral: that one boy was very clear about what the city needed.I liked how Spike Lee interviewed various figures (Ray Nagin, Kathleen Blanco, etc.) to get their opinions on what what went wrong, even if they sometimes blamed each other. Of course, the biggest blame lies with the Bush administration for its racism, inaction, and starving of government programs (never mind that he'd sent the National Guard to Iraq to fight his vile war). As Rev. Al Sharpton put it, we're supposed to be spreading democracy to Iraq while the people here got nothing.All in all, this just might be Spike Lee's best work ever. It just goes to show what the US government had degenerated into. For the record, Harry Belafonte mentioned how Venezuela's Hugo Chavez had offered New Orleans help; I remember while I was in St. Petersburg reading on the Internet that Cuba's government also offered help (the Bush administration didn't respond, natch). Also while I was in St. Petersburg, I read about Bob Denver's death on 2 September 2005; it turned out that that was the same day that Bush commended FEMA head Michael Brown for "doing a heckuva job". So the last thing that Bob Denver got to see before dying was Bush praising incompetence (even if it wasn't specifically Brown's fault).All in all, a great documentary. And I laud Kanye West for reminding everyone that George W. Bush doesn't care about black people.