Eye Nosh: Is This the Best Pastrami in America?
Zenyatta Makes "Her"Story
Pixies 'Doolittle' @ The Palladium 11/4/09
-thumb-110x110-455795.jpg)
Build Your Own BBQ for Under 10 Bucks!
The Bravery @ the Wiltern 11/05/09
When the Levees Broke
HBO, tonight, 8pm
The easiest thing that Spike Lee could have done in tackling the documentary about last year's tragedy in the Gulf Coast was pile-on to the Bush and Brownie bashing.
He could have put a Michael Moore hit piece on FEMA and the President and also thrown the New Orleans Mayor and Louisiana Governor under the bus. Lord knows there were enough witnesses, enough news reports, and enough fuck-ups to bury anyone whom one of the most controversial directors of the last few decades had in his sights.
Instead, Lee simply told the story, which includes people blaming others, which includes spotlighting heroes, which includes experts explaining how it happened.
The stars of this documentary are not the famous names that you know, but the actual people who were effected. They're not whiners. They point fingers a little and invite those responsible to kiss their ass, but they mostly grieve and promise to return.
And when they return, as some do in the clip after the jump, you don't see those strangers that you saw on the roofs or in the Superdome, you see your grandmother and your uncle and your mother. You see middle-class Americans with feelings who deserved help and didn't get it.
"I'm 59 years old," a woman says, with a forced smile on her face. "My husband is 67 years old. We worked hard. We're well-educated. He's got a Masters from UCLA, undergrad from Berkeley. I have a law degree, an MBA, and I had nothing. I had nothing. I don't know how to make you understand the despair, the depression, the anxiety..."
You will cry.
Lee's use of music adds an even deeper level to the tragedy that a flooded New Orleans brings. The culture there is so rich. The people are so eloquent no matter how they pronounce words or spell them. The story gets told -- their way, which is often through brass and drums and dancing on the way to the cemetery. These Americans are very different than us. We could learn a lot from them.
It is a sad tale told by real people in an honest way, which is sadly one reason why when HBO premiered the film, no one really talked about it. There's no controversy. It's heartbreaking and quick-paced, but because it doesn't say Bush=Hitler like so many would have liked it to say, it most likely will be overlooked.
Thankfully Spike left the sensationalistic style to the cable tv current-event shows like Geraldo and Nancy Grace, and simply laid out what happened and allowed the viewers to make their own conclusions.
Here's a taste:
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Spike had no need to Bush-bash. By selecting to interview only people with a "Bush-Bashing" agenda, he let his subjects do the bashing for him.
but bob, do you think there was anyone in the gulf coast states affected by Katrina who think Bush did a good job? when you make a documentary about katrina, maybe you can find those subjecs to interview...
I'd like to see the pro-Bush Iraq documentary, the pro-Bush Katrina documentary... in fact, I'd like to see anything pro-Bush right now because I need a good laugh after all the misery this man has fostered.
A whole year later and the same leaders are in charge. Maybe this doc will change that for 2006 and beyond.
I don't have to watch this movie to cry. I saw the NBC news last night with Bush speaking to Brian Williams, when he said the following (from MSNBC): (I had to go read it there to make sure I heard what I'd thought I'd heard)
"BUSH: The key for me is to keep expectations low.
WILLIAMS: Is that what everyone doesn't get?
BUSH: I don't know, Brian, what they get or don't get. Here's the thing: The great thing about the presidency is that you are totally exposed. And people spend a lot of, particularly if you're making decisions, and hard decisions, people spend a lot of time, not only analyzing decisions, but analyzing the decision maker. And I understand that, but a president must never let that get him off track.
WILLIAMS: Even if you're frustrated that we're getting something wrong?
BUSH: You have to do what you, if we're getting something wrong, we change it.
WILLIAMS: How have you been read wrong?
BUSH: I don’t know. I frankly don't pay that much attention. I don’t want to hurt people’s feelings, but…
WILLIAMS: Still not watching television, huh?
BUSH: I watched a good baseball game."
So it seems that Mr. Bush has not seen TV coverage of the disaster, the people trapped in attics, on rooftops, dead in their wheelchairs. Yes he has gone there, but for photo ops in select locations. I'll watch Spike's movie someday, but the person who needs to see it most is watching baseball games.
thats our Bush!
"You see middle-class Americans with feelings who deserved help and didn't get it."
Yeah, I hear ya. Back when I thought it was just poor people, I was all like, "screw them." But now that I know that some of them are middle class--with feelings, even!--I am hopping mad, I tell you.