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Spike'd Punch

A short time ago, in my review of "This Film Is Not Yet Rated", I asked if I was foolish for thinking that documentaries should be even-handed. I received several emails informing me that I was. My comment, however, was a reaction to a recent glut of one-sided - though perfectly watchable - political sounding-boards posing as documentaries, i.e., "Fahrenheit 9/11", "Super Size Me" and "An Inconvenient Truth". All are fine films. My question was not a condemnation, but an observation. So in light of all that, I need to thank Spike Lee for a great many reasons.

1) For proving that a documentary can be fair and even-handed as well as hard-hitting and thought-provoking with "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts".
2) For creating this stirring, much-needed four-hour chronicle of the Hurricane Katrina disaster and the federal government's unforgivably witless response.
3) For not holding a grudge that I haven't been a huge fan of his recent films - at least not the fiction variety ("Inside Man", "She Hate Me", "25th Hour") since 1999's "Summer of Sam". However, if "Levees" is the result when Spike Lee makes a documentary, I might suggest that the director has found another calling.

With access to incredible amounts of heartbreaking on-the-ground footage from deep within New Orleans, as well as interviews with celebrities, politicians and many native citizens, Mr. Lee is able to skillfully lead us through the days leading up to Katrina and the intervening weeks and months of agony. Carefully piecing together eyewitness accounts as well as newscasts, Mr. Lee puts us in the moment. We relive the naïve "it's just another storm" attitude that preceded the disaster. And, for those of us outside the Gulf Coast, we get an up-close view of those following weeks when many of us had long since gone about our daily routines as our fellow Americans suffered in inexcusable squalor.

Surprisingly for a Spike Lee joint, the documentary doesn't put too fine a point on the blatantly obvious racial issue at work here. Mr. Lee, wisely eschewing a voice-over narration in the film, lets his interview subjects do the talking. Among those interviewed are Al Sharpton, Michael Eric Dyson and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who comes across as a man caught in a frustrating bureaucracy. The mayor's recounting of his meeting with President Bush on Air Force One is particularly enlightening. There are also surprisingly frank parallels to Rudy Giuliani, as well as a much-deserved segment on General Honore, the man who finally got the clean up started.

As the film progresses, Mr. Lee brings us into the Superdome and the inhuman conditions which met the storm's victims. For these citizens, that week was one horrifying "out of the frying pan into the fire" experience after another. First, they were made to wait hours if not days to be rescued from their flooded homes; then they were left to fester, forgotten in the Superdome or on some abandoned highway off-ramp; then they were shoved onto planes bound for unnamed destinations. It's one startlingly careless rescue attempt after another.

If Acts I and II of this "Requiem" cover the storm itself, the latter two can only be called the aftermath. Homes and families have been destroyed, seemingly wiped away by the fury of the storm. Mr. Lee culls devastating footage of the ruined city along with firsthand accounts of the experiences of the surviving residents. There is more blisteringly insightful commentary about FEMA and the current administration's responsiveness. Kanye West even makes an appearance to comment on his now infamous "George Bush hates Black people" remark. Professor Michael Katz sums up the situation similarly when he says, "America has the money to pay for what it wants to pay for."

As it unfolds over two nights on HBO, the film builds to a bittersweet climax of reflection and longing. I'm sure it will be re-broadcast and eventually should make its way on to DVD. This achievement by Spike Lee and his team should be required viewing for any American ready to face this full-fledged national disaster head-on. Please seek it out, as Mr. Lee's production company logo says, by any means necessary.