Customer Reviews

The Big Uneasy

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Diary From The Dome, Reflections on Fear and Privilege During Katrina

Having been a So. Calif. tourist stuck in the Superdome during Katrina and the levee failures I was most interested in seeing this documentary. I was fortunate to attend the screening in New Orleans and Harry was present for a Q & A. While not totally objective, as I was there during the debacle of this unnatural disaster and natural disaster, I still would have found this film as captivating and especially enlightening even if I had been safe at home.

While one may expect some humor with Harry making this movie, you won't find that in this film. What you will find is an eye opening discovery of the links between Congress, the Army Corps of Engineers, Subcontractors, and special interests whose interest are not your safety but rather building water projects that reward contributors, speed, cutting corners, and friends. You will discover the lack of accountability in these projects and the pain which those who are whistle-blowers have to endure to try and protect the 51% of us who live in counties "protected" by Army Corps' projects.

There are many myths surrounding Hurricane Katrina and the death and destruction in New Orleans. Unfortunately too many Americans still attribute that to Katrina the storm, when in fact it was the failed Army Corps of Engineers levees that couldn't survive a Category 3 storm, and the slow response by FEMA that led to most of the deaths and destruction in NOLA. After seeing this film you will be a believer.

Furthermore you will gain a better understanding of how money runs our political systems (in case you weren't already atune to this). This film is a winner because it does what a documentary is supposed to do; providing raw first person footage and first person commentary in a way that elucidates and educates the viewer in a clear manner.

I wish that everyone would see this film. I am from New Orleans, and the devastation from Hurricane Katrina is beyond what most people can imagine. This film accurately tells the story of the continued ineptitude of the Army Corps of Engineers in regards to the city of New Orleans. It also shows how certain whistleblowers have been penalized for their honesty and integrity concerning the situation.

A lot of people don't understand why we New Orleanians blame the government for Katrina, since it was a "natural" disaster. You will get it after seeing The Big Uneasy.

Without some of the Hollywood fluff, this film should be required viewing in every Civics and Civil Engineering classroom in the U.S. Powerful and well done.

So, was Katrina a "natural disaster" as the media & government would have you believe? Or was it a man-made one?

Actor, writer & comedian Harry Shearer didn't have to break into some secret file to uncover the truth. The evidence was there for anyone to see: collapsed floodwalls, failed pumping systems, and a failure on the part of the media that can't be topped. The post-Katrina disaster, well, we know about that: lack of aid, FEMA screw-ups, homelessness, the abandonment of entire sections of New Orleans. But it's what happened BEFORE to cause the flooding that matters most: poorly designed, under-funded projects touted as New Orleans' protection from storms even more powerful than Katrina. Most of the flooding in N.O. was not caused by the storm going OVER the walls, but rather of the storm going UNDER them and breaking them at the ill-designed foundation; pumps designed to evacuate water from the city which never met testing standards; whistle blowers ignored and demoted; post-Katrina reports ignored by the media.

And not only is this an investigative film which takes us where the journalists should have, but it's an insightful, human tale as well. John Goodman (doing his very best "John Goodman"!) introduces us to New Orleanians who tell their stories, too.

The Katrina disaster could have been avoided. Harry Shearer has done a remarkable job exposing the truth.

This movie has very convincingly outlined how the city happened to flood during Katrina. It wasn't because Katrina was such a bad storm but it was because so many safeguards to prevent the flooding failed. Mainly; levees that were supposed to protect the city (built by the Army Corps of Engineers. Its about Engineers who trie to find out why the city flooded; did find out why and when they tried to tell people, these same Engineers were treated as whistle blowers and some were relieved of their positions. All those people died because the safeguards that were put in place to protect them were inferior.

I don't know why people aren't more angry about this information !

I'm saying this badly but I wanted to review it anyway.

Great movie. Harry Shearer presents a comprehensive review of the ineptness of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.....and why Katrina was not a "natural disaster" but a colossal series of mistakes by the Corps. Well done. Everyone should see this movie to see how poorly their tax dollars are being spent.

Harry Shearer did a great job with this documentary. I may have never considered a natural disaster could happen at the hands of our government. I, on the west coast, only knew what had been press releases and raw video. Over the years I have learned more of the truth behind those images and word-plays and I applaud Harry Shearer for presenting explicit facts which reiterate the way our government works, shady. I recommend this documentary to anyone seeking details of what really happened in New Orleans after Katrina.

And it tries a bit too hard to be dramatic in some unspecified way that doesn't quite work. I know talking heads documentaries can be boring but this would have been better as a more straightforward piece and while the material is interesting and revealing, it would have felt complete as (no more than) a 1 hour Frontline piece (watch The Storm). If you feel like you know the story of the Corps of Engineers deficiencies that seem to have played a big part in the flooding of New Orleans, reasonably prominent as news in 2007, it might not be worth the time to watch this.

Judge Clark Douglas, DVD Verdict-- Over the course of the past few years, it's been made clear that the devastation brought to New Orleans was not entirely a result of the natural disaster that was Hurricane Katrina. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made a series of critical failures that turned what could have been merely a bad situation into a massive tragedy. In the wake of the Hurricane, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers devoted its resources to protecting itself and attacking those who called its integrity into question. It's a bitter, unpleasant story that needs to be told, but is Harry Shearer really the right guy to tell it?

My initial instinct would have been "yes." Shearer is an intelligent, thoughtful person (as evidenced by his newspaper editorials, his Huffington Post blog entries, and his numerous appearances on television talk shows addressing the subjects he explores in this film) and certainly has some personal knowledge of the area (he has been a part-time New Orleans resident for more than twenty years). Additionally, his sharp comic sensibilities suggested that he might be able to bring some flavorful bite to his take on this part of history.

Disappointingly, Shearer's actual movie proves much less involving than many of the public appearances he's made to promote the film. I expected the documentary to be smart and well-informed, which it most assuredly is. However, I didn't expect the execution to be so dry, amateurish, and uninvolving. Shearer assembles a sizable crew of individuals to give us the specific details on what happened piece-by-piece, but the manner in which the film is structured makes it feel more like a 90-page legal report than a gripping real-life drama.

To be sure, The Big Uneasy is a well-intentioned film, and it's valuable if you're just looking for the basic facts on what happened. Still, it lacks both the emotional pull of Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke and the polish of an in-depth New York Times article. It will prove a solid resource for high school students in years to come, but the average viewer has numerous superior options that cover similar territory to choose from.

-Full review at dvdverdict.com