When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts

2006

4 hr. 15 min.

Documentary

List

94%

35 Reviews

Tomatometer

96%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Spike Lee documents life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city's anti-flooding safeguards in 2005. In the film, New Orleans residents tell their stories and vent their anger -- some calmly, some with unbridled rage -- at the callousness displayed by their local, state and national leaders. Survivors share their own heartbreaking tales, leveling charges and challenges at the officials who failed to protect their lives, their homes and their city.

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Critics Consensus

When the Levees Broke offers a heart-rending elegy for an American city overflowing with culture, beset by natural disaster, and betrayed by institutional indifference.

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Audience Member

Living in Panama City after Hurricane Michael gave this a specific feel for me. All these post-storm stories and issues, with the government and FEMA and the media…it's all so familiar. So little has changed. In one of his most reserved (though still fully emotional) films, Lee gives a lovingly in-depth look at the effect of race and class during the fallout of a natural disaster.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A look inside the lives of people who went through Katrina and how it's impacted them. Most of the interviews are first-hand accounts of what transpired... the good and the bad (mostly bad). It's sad to look back now and see all the mistakes that took place re government help for the victims and for the city itself. I had always thought Kanye was an idiot for his comment on national tv re Bush hating black people, but I view it through totally different eyes and I fully agree with what he did/said. Most of the government big shots failed miserably in how they handled the crisis, mostly due to putting their self interests before the victims' (ie Bush, Cheney, the governor of Louisiana, the head of FEMA, etc). I leave Mayor Nagin off that list bc I believe he tried as hard as he could to get help for his people, the citizens of New Orleans. Spike Lee does a great job of taking clips/interviews and telling a coherent story from them. It's extremely long at over 4hrs, but this issue needed that much time to be explained properly.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

"And Brownee, you're doin' a heck of a job." When the Levees Broke is a 4 hour documentary by Spike Lee about the before, during and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Debuting on TV August 16 2006, LESS than a year after the actual hurricane itself! How he put together a movie this detailed so quickly is crazy to me. I heard Bowling for Columbine took 3 years to put together from start to finish. This is an outstanding documentary. 4 hours and it goes by like that *snap*. It's one of those documentaries like OJ: Made in America or Making a Murderer where length is not an issue, the way the material is put together is just impossible to put down. It's interviews involving nearly every echelon of the people involved. Interviews with the mayor of New Orleans, the governor of Louisiana, the medical examiner of New Orleans, journalists covering Katrina, etc. And of course loads of interviews with survivors of the hurricane and the people who have to deal with the mess.... because the federal government sure wasn't in a hurry. And there's even some celebs interviewed who had a part in the events such as Sean Penn who took a canoe to personally go after survivors and Kanye West who said live on TV "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Would have liked to get Mike Myers take on that moment... I was expecting this to be extremely depressing as would make sense given the severity of the events. And at times it is. At times it's even shocking beyond words. I don't think I'll ever forget the images of bloated corpses that were left to rot in the sun in the streets of New Orleans. However it's a welcome relief to the proceedings that Spike Lee doesn't make this documentary without a certain sense of humor. Spike Lee doesn't crack wise... except one moment where he's asking a guy about the guns he had in his house in New Orleans and as he lists them Lee asks "Were you looking for Bin Laden?" But the "humor" mainly comes from the interviewees themselves. People just trying to tell their stories and can't help but be entertaining when they do. Phyllis Montana Leblanc is a citizen who's featured very prominently in the documentary, telling her stories of her experience losing everything and fighting to get it back and CERTAINLY not holding anything back and you know Spike Lee was sitting across from her going "Oh man, this is good stuff." I got nothing for complaints. Aside from POSSIBLY waiting a little longer to see how the situation in New Orleans progresses... but he could always do a follow-up, I suppose. This is some of Spike Lee's finest work.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

david f

The story of Hurricane Katrina striking New Orleans and the aftermath told by many, many voices.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Very moving and educational, but very one-sided view of this crisis. Would loved to have heard from more people in government, more about why the city was so underprepared. Would loved to have heard about the economics. Again, very biased viewpoint of a very complex disaster.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

Full Review

Serge L

We get to see and hear about all what went right but mostly wrong during and after Katrina assault on Nouvelle Orléans. We learn much about the city and the way of life. We learn much about the way the people are not valued by the invading englishes. Vive le français libre.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

08/23/18

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Spike Lee

Director

Harry Belafonte

Actor

Terence Blanchard

Actor

George W. Bush

Actor

Dick Cheney

Actor

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Troy Patterson

New Yorker

Think of the film as a companion in mourning.

May 9, 2020

Full Review

John Leonard

New York Magazine/Vulture

... masterful crosscutting mix of past and present, of authority and anguish, of ass-covering officialdom and angry dispossession, of sick-city misery and soul-stirring music...

Jan 17, 2018

Full Review

Paul Schrodt

Slant Magazine

Spike Lee's political statement is one of humanism, and the result is his most potent work in years.

Rated: 3.5/4

May 21, 2015

Full Review

David Walsh

World Socialist Web Site

Lee's politics, left-liberalism and quasi-black nationalism, and his scattershot artistic approach leave him unprepared for the immensity of the task. He seems overwhelmed.

Feb 14, 2021

Full Review

Nicholas Lemann

The New York Review of Books

Raw and painful-it got across the pure horror of the aftermath of the storm...

Nov 5, 2018

Full Review

Josh Larsen

LarsenOnFilm

...the evidence of governmental indifference and incompetence quietly piles up until it becomes cumulatively enraging.

Rated: 3.5/4

Aug 3, 2018

Full Review

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Synopsis

Spike Lee documents life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city's anti-flooding safeguards in 2005. In the film, New Orleans residents tell their stories and vent their anger -- some calmly, some with unbridled rage -- at the callousness displayed by their local, state and national leaders. Survivors share their own heartbreaking tales, leveling charges and challenges at the officials who failed to protect their lives, their homes and their city.

Director: Spike Lee
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (DVD): Dec 19, 2006