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When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts
MINISERIES: HBO, begins Monday 8/21 at 9:00p


8.6

based on 25 reviews
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how did we calculate this?

based on 55 votes
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Official Show Site

Director Spike Lee investigates conditions in New Orleans both during and since Hurricane Katrina in this four-hour documentary miniseries.

GENRE(S):	Documentary
FIRST AIR DATE:	August 21, 2006
LAST AIR DATE:	August 22, 2006

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Baltimore Sun David Zurawik

For all his mastery of the filmmaker's craft, Lee's passion and sense of righteousness are what ultimately make the film so compelling.

100

Detroit Free Press Mike Duffy

A documentary masterpiece.

100

San Francisco Chronicle David Wiegand

As a film, "Levees" is a significant and exhaustive achievement.

100

New York Daily News David Hinckley

"When the Levees Broke" not only ranks among Lee's career bests as a film project, but it is the year's finest TV documentary to date.

100

People Weekly Tom Gliatto

The whole thing has a beautifully measured pace. [28 Aug 2006, p.35]

100

New York Magazine John Leonard

When the Levees Broke... is the class act of this summer’s documentaries, and the whole year, too--something between a nineteenth-century novel and anthropology with a sword, a combination of Balzac and Fats Domino.

Christian Science Monitor Gloria Goodale

Cumulatively, the everyday voices of those who waited in vain for help that never came, mingled with the concern of prominent national figures, presents a poignant picture of official blunders and personal loss, and provides important national lessons if another threat this size hits an American city.

Entertainment Weekly Gilbert Cruz

A harrowing expose. [25 Aug 2006, p.80]

TV Guide Matt Roush

This eloquent, angry film is one of Lee's best and certainly ranks among his most important.

Variety Joe Leydon

Charged with profound sorrow, galvanizing outrage and defiant resolve, Spike Lee's extraordinary "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts" renders the worst natural disaster in U.S. history... as a perfect storm of catastrophic weather, human error, socioeconomic inequity and bureaucratic dysfunction.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Tony Norman

The result is a breathtaking, often depressing and always riveting account of the nation's rapid descent into the contemporary heart of darkness that was New Orleans nearly a year ago.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Melanie McFarland

One might think that four hours of this is too much; by the end, you realize that it's barely enough.

Slate Troy Patterson

It can get to feel arduous--unflinching explorations of genuine tragedy do tend to wear you down--but it's never gratuitous or dull.

Washington Post Lynne Duke

Along with visuals that capture all aspects of the disaster, these bitter, wounded, poignant, thoughtful, expert and often foul-mouthed voices are knitted together in a tightly edited film that manages to sustain four hours without a central narrator.

Newark Star-Ledger Matt Zoller Seitz

One of Lee's greatest and most deeply personal works.

San Jose Mercury News Charlie McCollum

A soaring opera set in the key of outrage.

Chicago Sun-Times Doug Elfman

"When the Levees Broke" is hard to watch. It's hard to take. The anger. The sadness. All over again.

Kansas City Star Aaron Barnhart

Despite its biases and often strident tone, “When the Levees Broke” can fairly be called the definitive chronicle of the 11 months since Katrina swept away much of the Crescent City.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Most of the events in the first two hours will be familiar to anyone who watched television news in the disaster’s early weeks. It is in the last two parts — which examine the uncertain futures of tens of thousands of evacuees, analyze the engineering failures that allowed the flood to breach the levees, and speculate about the city’s future — that the movie rises to greatness.

Los Angeles Times Paul Brownfield

"When the Levees Broke" isn't so much investigative as impressionistic, the kind of storytelling you still get on a radio show like Ira Glass' "This American Life."

LA Weekly Robert Abele

If you think the first two hours -- the hurricane, the floods, the convention center, the absent FEMA -- is the disturbing part, brace yourself for the stories in the last two hours: dispersed families, stagnant rebuilding efforts, people finding the dead bodies of their loved ones in houses that were carelessly marked by search teams as having no corpses, the special hell of dealing with insurance companies, etc.

Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron

A comprehensive look at what the storm did to the lives of the people who survived it.

Newsday Verne Gay

"When the Levees Broke"... is powerful, thoughtful and deeply compassionate. That said, "Levees" is often scattershot and undisciplined.

Philadelphia Daily News Ellen Gray

[When] "When the Levees Broke" finally gets going, it is, like the water that poured under, over and through those poorly constructed barriers, unstoppable.

Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker

Lee's main mistake is quickly apparent. He lets so many people from New Orleans sound off and reminisce that the program becomes a talking-head epic.

The average user rating for this tv show is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 55 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Josh R. gave it a10:
Amazing. As side note, you have to love the negative reviews, which all seem to revolve around the clash between the political bias of the reviewer and what they see as Lee's political bais.

Mathias B gave it a10:
A masterpice, plain and simple. This is an emotionally wrenching, messy and profound work. Yes, it's flawed, but every great film is. What it gets to is the tragedy of this event and the high crimes that surrounded it ("Heck of a job Brownie"). This is a moving, compelling document that gives voice to the people who suffered through this time that shall be forever etched into our country's history.

Barry M gave it a9:
As a survivor of Katrina, I had a bad PTS. That alone should convince anyone of it's accuracy. My only probllem was with the disturbing images. Dis we really have to see all those rotting corpses?

Tomas gave it a3:
political sniping at its worst

Jonathan P gave it a9:
Watching the images of those dealing with the hurricane's aftermath, I realized that I'd never really seen them without a natural soundtrack. Though this documentary frequently augments them with music, I think this was the first time I saw the images and heard the sounds of the people for myself, instead of being covered over by incessant chatter of 24-hour news people. For that alone, this film is a priceless document of what occurred.

Spongeee gave it a10:
Another classic Spike Lee Joint. It is an honest, brutual, telling of the Katrina story. Well done and put together...great filmmaking.

Brenda C gave it a10:
Spike's best work ever!!!! Bravo, Spike......Bravo!!!!!

When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts MINISERIES: HBO, begins Monday 8/21 at 9:00p

When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts
MINISERIES: HBO, begins Monday 8/21 at 9:00p