When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts is precisely the sort of angry and polarizing piece of work one might’ve expected from filmmaker Spike Lee – yet there’s simply no denying the fact that the movie is ultimately hurt by an egregiously overlong running time (four hours!) and Lee’s unmistakably self-indulgent directorial choices. Documenting virtually every aspect of the New Orleans hurricane disaster of 2005, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts consists mainly of interviews with folks from the area and various experts and specialists – as Lee paints a portrait of the damage done by Katrina on both a financial and human scale. Although the film is rife with genuinely emotional moments, Lee’s propensity for going off on completely unrelated and downright pointless tangents (eg the history of jazz within the city) lends the proceedings a distinctly uneven feel. As a result, what should have been a searing, powerful documentary generally comes off as a rough cut that’s desperately in need of some judicious editing.

**1/2 out of ****