Talk:When the Levees Broke

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Shouldn't the fact that Spike Lee, the director of this film, himself has made some controversial comments about the government intentionally "blowing up" the levees on Real Time with Bill Maher?--Jersey Devil 22:34, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Is that true? I don't believe it is. The film doesn't push that story either. In fact it presents people saying that they heard explosions and that the levees were blown up - but then refutes it unequivocally. --AStanhope 18:39, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

If Spike Lee says something particularly notable, it may belong in the article about Spike Lee. As it is not in the film covered by this article, it doesn't seem directly relevent to the article about the film. -- Infrogmation 20:45, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Contents 1 "Ringsidepolitics" Criticism section 2 Spike Lee Comments on Real Time with Bill Maher 3 MoveOn.org is promoting the movie 4 Section moved to talk 4.1 Controversy of the documentary character 5 POV in the "points made..." section

[edit] "Ringsidepolitics" Criticism section

That section was entirely POV and simply copied most of a larger article on a POV site intact into the article. A link to that article/site can remain. Not the rest. --AStanhope 20:14, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

I rephrased and restored the criticism section. I believe the information that the anonymous poster posted is legitimate. My rephrase acknowledges that the criticism is coming from a conservative commentator. --Scottcurrier 20:30, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Concerning the "update" to my rephrased criticism that I posted, (1) Mr. Crouere has seen the film, (2) he is focusing on content within the film and not outside statements made by Lee, (3) while the film features both white and black victims, the film clearly focuses on black victims over whites, and (4) Mr. Crouere does not claim that the conspiracy theory that the government intentionally blew up the levees originated with Lee and never claims that the film promotes it. --Scottcurrier 22:00, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

• This is the part of Crouere's review that talks about bombing levees. It certainly appears to me that he is under the impression that the Lee and the film are promoting the theory:

One item on Lee’s agenda was to focus on the preposterous charge that the levees were blown up after Katrina. Lee interviewed several Lower Ninth Ward residents who claimed they heard explosions and expressed their opinion that “they blew up the levees.” Yet, Lee did not examine some important questions such as who, how, why, when, with what? Are viewers to believe that during the height of a monster hurricane government officials went out to the levees with sticks of dynamite to blow them up? Give me a break. It did not happen and there is not one scintilla of evidence that any levees were purposely destroyed. The loud explosions heard by area residents can easily be explained by the huge super tanker of a barge that busted through the flood walls on its way to its final resting place in an adjacent neighborhood.

• --AStanhope 03:10, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Spike Lee Comments on Real Time with Bill Maher

The following is the video of the Real Time with Bill Maher episode where Spike Lee insinuates that the government "could have" blown up the levees. In the show he is talking about his "upcoming documentary" i.e., this film, so it is quite relevant to this article. [1]--Jersey Devil 00:22, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] MoveOn.org is promoting the movie

MoveOn.org is encouraging people to watch the movie on HBO. http://civ.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=10991 Mathiastck 16:22, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Section moved to talk

The below section added by User:H-cz seems to be partly speculative and partly editorializing. I have therefore moved it here to the talk page for review. -- Infrogmation 15:51, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Controversy of the documentary character

Spike Lee said on TV, that he saw the devastation of New Orleans while he was in Italy. He claimed couldn't believe what he saw and that he knew, that it was the fault of government and armed forces. This puts some doubts on the documentary character of the film: more than covering of the reality it is the visualisation of the opinion Spike Lee created while watching TV on holidays.

The man who was in Italy was an elderly White man. Feel free to follow the link above to Spike Lee to see if that matches his description.

I'm watching the whole thing on DVD right now; the white man you're talking about *was* in Italy, but was at Pompeii. Spike talks about being in Venice in the director's commentary track to the first act. He was at a movie premiere. Now having said that, anyone watching CNN that week knows for a fact that the government bungled the whole tragedy into a debacle - it's hardly a POV issue, it's a simple and ridiculously well documented historical fact. Krupo 06:28, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] POV in the "points made..." section

The claim that the disaster in New Orleans was "most severely" compounded by failures at the federal level needs citation. If such cannot be provided, then it needs to be removed or recast so the reader knows it is an opinion expressed by the film. Currently, it's just a biased opinion. -- KarlHallowell 20:46, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Much better. Section seems kind of light still (surely the film made other points), but I like the current level of citation. -- KarlHallowell 17:52, 6 April 2007 (UTC)