I hope I never understand the horror that Hurricane Katrina victims experienced during their 5+ days of abandonment. I've met several Katrina evacuees in Houston-area hospitals and find myself very interested in what happened.
Spike Lee's 4 hour documentary shows some history of New Orleans, the anticipation of the hurricane, the arrival of the hurricane, and the aftermath. The documentary is at its best when the actual victims describe their experiences. It's at its worst when Harry Belafonte, Al Sharpton, and Sean Penn assign blame and interpret the events for the weak-minded audience members. Spike himself gets in a few cheap shots while interviewing white people.
Not surprisingly, the president doesn't fare too well here. It's not completely disingenuous like Fahrenheit 9/11, but clearly Lee has an agenda. The inadequate bureaucracy and complete communication failure from the local, state, and national levels is rightfully discussed, but Bush receives the most blame. I would expect if Bush had swooped down on day one, Lee, Belafonte, et al. would have accused him of sexism and racism by assuming the white female governor and the black male mayor were incapable of handling the crisis. But obviously, Bush should have acted much, much sooner. And Cheney and Condoleeza Rice should have better political sense than to be fly fishing and attending Monty Python broadway shows, respectively, while thousands of people are drowning, starving, and suffering to death in an American city.
Most of the points are fair and the movie should be required viewing to make sure this doesn't happen again. It's certainly not easy to watch, but it is informative and important. And it's only the second most important American story since the fall of the Soviet Union. B
Note for future documentarians: Less Michael Moore and more Ken Burns.
Not surprisingly, the president doesn't fare too well here. It's not completely disingenuous like Fahrenheit 9/11, but clearly Lee has an agenda. The inadequate bureaucracy and complete communication failure from the local, state, and national levels is rightfully discussed, but Bush receives the most blame. I would expect if Bush had swooped down on day one, Lee, Belafonte, et al. would have accused him of sexism and racism by assuming the white female governor and the black male mayor were incapable of handling the crisis. But obviously, Bush should have acted much, much sooner. And Cheney and Condoleeza Rice should have better political sense than to be fly fishing and attending Monty Python broadway shows, respectively, while thousands of people are drowning, starving, and suffering to death in an American city.
Most of the points are fair and the movie should be required viewing to make sure this doesn't happen again. It's certainly not easy to watch, but it is informative and important. And it's only the second most important American story since the fall of the Soviet Union. B
Note for future documentarians: Less Michael Moore and more Ken Burns.
2 comments:
Well said. I liked the same elements you did, but got annoyed at the singer of "The Banana Boat Song" lecturing me about the role of local government.
When I think about Katrina, I still can't fathom the length of time it took to get the people out of the convention center and other areas. Maybe if Bobby Jindal had beaten the incompetent Kathleen Blanco for governor in 2003, things would've worked out better. Maybe he'll win this year:
http://www.nytimes.com/cq/2007/01/22/cq_2163.html
Update...Blanco announced Tuesday she was dropping out of the race.
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