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MOVIES / ON DVD / WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE
When the Levees Broke

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When the Levees Broke (2006)

96%
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94%
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96 %
Reviews Counted: 26 Fresh: 25  Rotten:1 Average Rating: 8.1/10
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 4 hrs 16 mins
Synopsis:
With a runtime of over four hours, this HBO-produced Spike Lee documentary is the definitive word on Hurricane Katrina. Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, causing the levees that had previously kept the city from flooding to burst, which led to death, destruction, and homelessness on... [More]
With a runtime of over four hours, this HBO-produced Spike Lee documentary is the definitive word on Hurricane Katrina. Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, causing the levees that had previously kept the city from flooding to burst, which led to death, destruction, and homelessness on an alarming scale. Lee carefully plots the buildup to the hurricane, using many of the key figures in the city--such as mayor Ray Nagin and local radio show hosts--to outline the warnings given to residents. The film then covers the hurricane itself, showing gut-wrenching pictures of dead bodies and people pleading to be saved, before it settles into a lengthy discourse on the government response to the tragedy. Celebrities such as CNN's Soledad O'Brien, Sean Penn, and Harry Belafonte all appear, but Lee mainly focuses on the words of those who somehow made it through Katrina and lived to tell the tale. The majority of those people are highly critical of the Bush administration for its poor response, attributing this to the fact that the bulk of the residents affected were African-American. A powerful and important piece of filmmaking, WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE is an eye-opening account of a catastrophe that could so easily have been avoided. [Less]

Genre: Television

Starring: Kathleen Blanco, Ray Nagin, Al Sharpton, Harry Belafonte, Wynton Marsalis

Director: Spike Lee
Producer: Sam Pollard, Spike Lee
Composer: Terence Blanchard

DVD Info

Release:

Dec 19, 2006

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Keep Case
  • 3-Disc Set
  • Widescreen - 16.9

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 2.0 - English, Spanish
  • 5.1 Dolby Surround - English

Additional Release Material:

  • Audio Commentary - Spike Lee
  • Featurette - 1. "Next Movement"
  • Interviews

Text/Photo Galleries:

  • Photo Gallery - David Lee

Buy It On DVD

Reviews

 
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10/20/07 06:12 AM
Empire Magazine
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10/20/07 06:12 AM
Jeremy Heilman
MovieMartyr.com
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10/20/07 06:12 AM
Joe Lozito
Big Picture Big Sound
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10/20/07 06:12 AM
Mike Clark
USA Today
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Arguably Lee's best effort since Do the Right Thing.

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07/20/07 12:58 PM
Stan Hall
Oregonian
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Despite capturing many heartbreaking aspects of the disaster, this is essentially an overambitious mess which ultimately fails to convey effectively the scale or scope of the ongoing tragedy.

Full Review | Comment
05/11/07 02:35 PM
Kam Williams
One People's Project
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It's the depth and weight of Freeman Jr's or Michael Wright's or Phyllis Leblanc's words, the anger and sadness behind them, that surge forth here, sinking the political elite's murderously empty promises.

Full Review | Comment
03/09/07 07:38 PM
Brian Gibson
Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)
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In this golden era of documentary filmmaking, When the Levess Broke is among the very best films of the past year, fiction and non-fiction alike.

Full Review | Comment
12/22/06 11:23 AM
Dan Jardine
Cinemania
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The same didactic instincts that sometimes mar Lee's fictional filmmaking serve him well as a documentarian and eulogist.

Full Review | Comment
09/23/06 03:32 AM
Globe and Mail
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...what should have been a searing, powerful documentary generally comes off as a rough cut that's desperately in need of some judicious editing.

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09/08/06 06:42 PM
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews
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It’s an honest, fair and unflinching look at one of the greatest, and saddest, natural disasters to hit our shores.

Full Review | Comment
09/05/06 03:15 AM
Don R. Lewis
Film Threat
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Surely the most magnificent and large-souled record of a great American tragedy ever put on film.

Full Review | Comment
08/28/06 11:23 AM
David Denby
New Yorker
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What breaks your heart is the film’s accumulated firsthand stories of New Orleans residents who lost everything in the flood after Hurricane Katrina, and the dismaying conclusion that a year after the disaster, the broken city has been largely abandoned.

Full Review | Comment
08/22/06 02:27 PM
Stephen Holden
New York Times
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When the Levees Broke is like the New Orleans jazz funeral -- a dirge on the way to the cemetery, an up-tempo parade in the deceased's honor on the bittersweet walk back home.

Full Review | Comment
08/22/06 02:18 PM
Paul Brownfield
Los Angeles Times
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An exhaustive, ruminative, angry and even occasionally gallows-humorous account of the strange domino effect of tragedy compounding incompetence compounding tragedy that dealt a critical blow to one of America’s great cities.

Full Review | Comment
08/22/06 02:16 PM
Robert Abele
L.A. Weekly
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Do the flaws diminish Levees? To a degree. But the story Lee tells is so powerful, so important, that the lapses aren't a reason not to pay heed to what this passionate film has to say.

Full Review | Comment
08/22/06 02:15 PM
Charlie McCollum
San Jose Mercury News
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It's something to make a point to see.

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08/22/06 02:13 PM
David Bianculli
New York Daily News
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The film asks many questions, implies answers for the easier ones, but ultimately concludes that some are simply beyond answering. Those are the questions posed in stories of incalculable human heartbreak.

Full Review | Comment
08/22/06 02:11 PM
David Wiegand
San Francisco Chronicle
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[The film] presents a poignant picture of official blunders and personal loss, and provides important national lessons if another threat this size hits an American city.

Full Review | Comment
08/22/06 02:09 PM
Gloria Goodale
Christian Science Monitor
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One of Lee's greatest and most deeply personal works.

Full Review | Comment
08/22/06 02:07 PM
Matt Zoller Seitz
Newark Star-Ledger
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