In describing his new documentary “The Big Uneasy,” Harry Shearer has been careful to say that this is not another movie about Hurricane Katrina. That cataclysm is just the starting point.
“The Big Uneasy” looks into what happened after the floodwaters receded, and takes off from Shearer’s outrage over the designation of New Orleans’ plight as a natural disaster.
Not so fast. Shearer builds a potent case that the flooding that followed Katrina’s arrival was a combination of irresponsible land management and borderline-criminal levee building. All of which is now in danger of being repeated.
Shearer is well known as a comic actor; he’s a mainstay of “The Simpsons” and that gloriously awful rock band, Spinal Tap. He’s also lived in New Orleans for many years, so his concern in directing this movie is personal.
A lot of Shearer’s case is built on criticism of the Army Corps of Engineers and their responsibility for constructing the levees that were supposed to keep rising water levels from spilling into the streets of New Orleans.
A collection of scientists and Corps employees argue that the levees were constructed to the wrong specifications in the first place, not accidentally, but with the knowledge of the Corps. At least one builder complained to the Corps about the weakness of the prospective designs, only to be ordered to complete them anyway.
Another culprit in Shearer’s argument is the creation of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, inevitably shortened to Mr. Go. This was a major 1960s project that dredged a straight line from the ocean to the city, as a faster alternative to the curvy Mississippi River.
Shearer argues, with withering evidence, that the outlet never worked well in the first place, and probably caused a great deal of damage to the wetlands that would ordinarily tamp down the effects of a big storm heading inland.
The director keeps himself offscreen most of the time (although, oddly, his narrating segments are among the film’s more awkward moments). John Goodman occasionally pops up to introduce a segment called “Ask a New Orleanian,” which serves to dispel myths about the city’s demise.
But the real stars are the whistleblowers who have been highlighting the problems in the system. One LSU professor, Dr. Ivor van Heerden, was fired after persistently pointing out the flaws in the levees (both before Katrina and during the repair process); the movie makes a strong case that his firing was due to Louisiana State University’s fears of losing big corporate underwriting.
When it’s on point in drawing up graphs and marshaling facts, “The Big Uneasy” is awfully good; it organizes material you may have heard about bit by bit in recent years, putting it together in a cogent way. Seeing the argument laid out in calm fashion is a strong argument for Shearer’s position, and an equally good argument for documentary films.
“The Big Uneasy”
Comedian Harry Shearer directs a potent documentary about New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, specifically about the bad land management and levee design flaws that helped the city become flooded and which are now in danger of being repeated in the rebuilding process. The film makes a strong argument, and its collection of whistleblowers are persuasive.
Rated: Not rated; probably PG-13 for subject matter.
Showing: Northwest Film Forum.
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