This documentary of the Hurricane of the century, Katrina, should be watched by anyone who wants to see the best and worst in humanity. Centered on the New Orleans, LA area, this movie shows us the complete and utter devastation wrought. It's almost hard to believe that this actually happened. Filled with interviews from survivors and their families, along with some of the politicians from New Orleans, the State of Louisiana, and the federal government, we hear their stories of survival, heartbreak, amazement, disbelief, hopelessness, despair and death. The hurricane is merely one part of the equation here. (The movie runs 4 hours) the aftermath and the rescue efforts are given more footage than anything else. Starting with the city's response, then up the ladder to the state's response, then finally to the federal government's response. To say that there was widespread inaction and fumbling would be an oversimplification. What really happened before and during the response from these agencies will be debated ad infinitum. The truth is, there were over 200,000 residents of New Orleans stranded and needing assistance. Many were infirm, elderly, or did not have the means to leave the city when ordered. Some were no doubt, stubborn, refusing to leave their homes. But in the end, they were all human beings in need of help.Through interviews with many people who were there at the time, we learn and see of the chaos that took over in the hours and days following the storm. Without a proper plan in place to deal with all of the affected families and citizens, things broke down. Without proper amounts of food, water, clothing and other basic necessities, many were dying. Some of the toughest footage in the entire four hours is devoted to family members detailing how they had to leave the bodies of their loved ones behind, under blankets and tarps because there was no place to bury them. we see bodies floating in the flood waters, distended from heat, under tarps on a freeways. No way for anyone to die. One aspect of this movie that was somewhat troubling is some of the conspiracy theories that come up occasionally, such as the levees were blown up by the government, but these are generally given short thrift by the filmmaker, and most of the interviewees. However, one major problem I had was with the inclusion of Al Sharpton in the interviews. What does he add? Nothing. It seems as if he was included to pontificate and spew his racist views. He should have been cut. The film does have some major flaws, such as letting the governor of Louisiana Kathleen Blanco, and the mayor of New Orleans off the hook. They are never really questioned extensively about their roles, and it seems as if they were given a pass. On the other hand, FEMA director Mike Brown, was grilled, and deservedly so for his mishandling of the rescue efforts, along with Michael Chertoff, head of the Dept of Homeland Security, and former President Bush, none of whom are interviewed for this documentary. With a Spike Lee film, you're always going to get his angle, which is fine, but in this instance, because it was such a monumental event in this country's history, I though it deserved a more even treatment. Even so this is a must watch. At the end of the movie, we see many of the people interviewed in the film, going back to their wrecked and destroyed houses, to try and rebuild. Mardi Gras is again in full swing, and it seems that New Orleans may just rise from the waters and be reborn. One can only hope...

In this very special documentary that Michael Moore would truly love, New Orleans was listening, but not listening enough. The big problem was when Hurricane Katrina was about to slam towards the New Orleans coast; at that point, most of New Orleans' residents thought that the hurricane would go east towards Texas and not hit Louisiana. They were wrong.As Katrina hit the Gulf Waters and strengthened after hammering the state of Florida as a Category 4 storm, the storm grew to the highest scale in the Saffir-Simpson scale---a Category 5. Seeing that hurricane on radar in the Gulf, even though I was no hurricane forecaster, I believe that winds had whipped up to 145 to 160 mph in the worst part of the storm. The air pressure in the hurricane reached about 900 millibars. That means that convective available potential energies in that storm could reach as high as 6,000 joules per kilogram and lifted indices as high as -11. You only get these readings in a very severe thunderstorm.In other words, Katrina was a monster storm that cannot be ignored.On August 28, 2005, hurricane watches were put out throughout the whole Gulf Coast. The mayor of New Orleans told all New Orleans people to evacuate, but some New Orleans residents could not get out. Then the city government made a plan to put all evacuees who could not get out of New Orleans before the hurricane to the Superdome in downtown New Orleans. I saw about 100,000-150,000 people herded in the Superdome like cattle.And even after the storm, things were not better. People were stranded for days. The Superdome got hotter and hotter and some people decided to get out of there. The New Orleans Convention Center did not fare any better. The government did not care for them, and that is why a fair amount of hurricane victims died in the streets and in the waters. And to top it all off, anarchy akin to what happened in south central Los Angeles during the riots of 1991 exploded like a nuclear bomb in New Orleans. Several looters were shot; police kept the destitute and dislocated away from higher ground; and even police who had powers to arrest were unable to do it. One testimony of a Black looter who got shot twice by someone firing a shotgun and ending up with buckshot wounds all over made me so scared, because you only see such stuff in westerns.For some people, the breach of the levee in 2007 that triggered most of the New Orleans flooding, especially those who were at the Gentilly area of New Orleans, caused enormous fears. Some people near the breach of the levee heard explosions, and this was akin to the dynamite detonations of the levee during the last hurricane in New Orleans in about 1962.

I apologise for stealing another person's point but I will make reference to the review written by Ric-7 and the first point he makes. A requiem is like a lament, a time to reflect and grieve over a loss or event. An autopsy or an enquiry is not a lament but is a clear look at the loss or event to identify the reasons for it. By putting requiem in the title of his film, Lee is making it clear for everyone that the intension is to grieve over that happened rather than deliver a precise factual opinion on what happened. So criticisms that this isn't precise and a tighter affair are unfair.However having said that the film does a great job of providing balance – surprisingly so from Spike Lee, who I expected to play the race card, play everything up and point fingers in a one-sided diatribe. It could not have been further from the truth though because the film is actually pretty balanced. Of course there is an inevitable slant towards how terrible this whole shooting match was and is but then that is more to do with the fact that the whole event was terrible in all sorts of ways rather than the makers over-egging the cake. Set out in four acts the film deals with the build up and hitting of Katrina in act 1; the aftermath and response of the authorities in act 2; the human fall out as the evacuees try to cope in act 3 and finally the attempts to clear the city and look back in act 4.Watching it is a difficult experience. This is not because of the running time though, because it is so consistently engaging that I found my intentions to watch it in four parts turned into one sitting that seemed a lot shorter than it was. No, it is a difficult experience because of the emotions that hit you throughout. The loss of those caught up is well painted and several contributions had me crying although the film doesn't let us accept all of the victims as blameless and does feature people stating that they chose to stay. Of course the majority were expected to pick up their poverty and head across America to wherever and this makes up the secondary emotional hit. The film does show the things we know about – Bush's administration apparent lack of interest, the mess with FEMA and so on but it doesn't dwell on it that much and it doesn't get into finger pointing much beyond this – again we know this already and I doubt anyone looks at Bush's role in the aftermath and views him with anything other than embarrassment. For this reason it is also nice to be reminded of Barbara Bush's comment that many of the victims were better off living in a sports arena in Texas – I would laugh if I hadn't been sickened.However the film follows this with two acts on the wider aftermath and the pain continues. The second half of the series does get a bit slower and "matter of fact" but still remains gripping. It looks at families thrown all over the US; the lack of victim support and the emotional suffering that continued long after the event. The contributors make the film and they are almost always used well. Most people talk from the heart and are engaging as a result. There are plenty of people who make attacks and sweeping statements. The film doesn't just let these stand though and does include retractions and corrections on rumours such as those of children being raped etc. There aren't any contributions that I can think of that don't add much and nobody hogs the screen – the film uses them well.Visually the film looks good in the footage shot by Lee. As much of the first acts is archive footage you don't get that much of an impression of his style but even his framing of his interviews shows his style. His use of music is good and it was a good call to use the title credit music from 25th Hour to open the 3rd act as it makes a good link between the two events. Overall then a fascinating and emotionally impacting review of the Katrina affair. It is surprisingly balanced and held me easily for four hours and stands as a lament for the human suffering and the political forces that simply don't seem willing or able to work it out.

A year's protracted, drip-fed pageant of disaster and failure condensed into four hours. Lee has the good sense never to use voice-over but to let the characters speak for themselves. There's also very little ingenuous editing: footage of Bush' risible praise of his FEMA director or Kanye West's wandering off-script are the only points repeated for impact. Or perhaps for credibility.If there is a sense of narration, the principal speaker is the truly exceptional Mrs. Phyllis Montana LaBlanc. No more than a resident talking head, she's lucid, passionate, modest and good humoured. Were that the indicted federal government were that straight-talking and entertaining.The impression that one gets from the documentary is twofold. Firstly that the American federal government under George Bush is a breathtakingly self-interested, incompetent joke. Secondly that the resilient people of New Orleans have been dispossessed, not of their houses and goods but of their dignity. The strength of the documentary is that it restores some of that by focusing on the honesty of the participants rather than attempting to make a material case for them. 7/10