When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts

That is actually my lone complaint of the flick. Too soft on Nagin. For example, if you read Doug Brinkley's book, Nagin's theatrics on the "pimpmobile" make him look like a buffoon. Spike makes him look lovable.

 

Brinkley's an interesting case. In this movie, he's a LOT tougher on the feds than he's been in any other context that's I've seen, including in his book, where he is, indeed, in the "plague on all their houses" camp. Jed Horne's book is better, anyway.
One thing Spike did a great job of was giving voice to the unique culture shared by the people in NOLA. That actor -- who played the drug-smuggling African chief in a great L&O a long time ago -- was terrific, as were the Blanchards, and Wynton Marsalis. These were people with lives and family histories that were lost. I could have done with a little less Michael Eric Dyson, but I was riveted for the full four hours. Big props to HBO, which continues to make the best films you can see anywhere.

 

Unless, of course, you count the ones who tried going over the Crescent City Connection to the West Bank, only to be turned around at gunpoint by the Gretna polic.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/15/60minutes/main1129440.shtml

 

Man, that is a very interesting read. What ever came of it? Did the attorney general's office find civil rights violations? Because it sure sounds like there was at least "human" rights violations by that police department.

 

Let's not act surprised by anything seen in the documentary.

If you're poor and black, you're just used to shit happening to you just because. This is a difficult phenomenon for mainstream America to accept. Most white people don't understand, but it's not a stretch for poor black people to believe the gov't flooded crack into the ghetto or that they purposely blew up the levees. After all, this is the same gov't that engaged in the Tuskegee experiment. So why wouldn't they blow up levees?

I'm not saying they did. But what was striking to me was the difference in mindset between the poor and the rich. Poor people expect bad things to happen to them and rich people are generally surprised when it does.

If I'm in New Orleans, and have gone through what some of these people did, then I would feel as if my gov't abandoned me. It's easy for some of us to say, why did they rely on the gov't in the first place? But again, we've rushed to the aid of several other countries, so it is mind-boggling why we delayed in helping our own. I will say this again: The lives of blacks and other minorities are desensitized in the mainstream media, so it's no wonder the gov't doesn't feel compelled to act when they hear that the lives of thousands are being jeopardized.

 

Spike's movie has an interview with -- I believe -- a Louisiana state legislator who was turned back at gunpoint, and another one with a couple of young people.

 

I absolutely loved this movie. I have a friend who was a student at Tulane's School of Public Health when the hurricane hit. He was pretty miffed at the government's response, and he got out before the hurricane hit. I volunteered at the relief shelter in my community when it had about 400 people. One of them was talking to me one night and said he was staying in the community instead of going back. I asked why. His response.. "In NOLA we were treated like dead. In Houston, we were treated like animals. In Fort Chaffee they treated us like criminals and when we got here, we were finally treated like humans again."

Pretty powerful statement. I definitely cried.

 

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/StarParker/2006/08/28/katrina,_lies_and_videotape

 

Yep, Nagin got his ass kissed, and for no good reason. No doubt about it. A grevious flaw.

Otherwise, don't have much use for much of anything on townhall . . . the latest online
Bund Meeting favored by current powersucking apologists.

 

Lyman, that columnist might have had a legit point about Nagin (I haven't seen the film) but she loses all credibility inside the first graf.
To wit:

Spike Lee took his cameras and crew to New Orleans to film a documentary about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. The four-hour production, which aired on HBO, is, unfortunately, about as destructive as was the disaster it depicts. (emphasis mine).

Uhhhh, bullshit.

 

Star Parker is Larry Elder with ovaries.
If you want to read a serious takedown of Nagin, try this:
http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2006/08/wrong-man-for-job.html

 

When you can't win an argument, play the Nazi card. Nicely done, Ben.