FILM REVIEW: The Big Uneasy

Harry Shearer’s new Hurricane Katrina documentary, The Big Uneasy, is not a good “film” . . . technically speaking. Shearer is best known for two things – his many characters on the Simpsons and being the bass player for Spinal Tap. What he’s not known for is documentary film making, but he’s not claiming to be an expert. At the end of the day, a documentary is only as good or as important as its subject, and the story The Big Uneasy tells is very, very important.

As a critic, I have to address the film’s problems, and it’s easiest for me to do it all in one go. For his personal narration, Shearer inexplicably places the camera what feels like six inches from his face, it’s both awkward and off-putting. The film is far too dependent on voice-overs (and no, the multiple celebrity cameos don’t help). There’s several obvious-to-the-point of clichéd visual metaphors. The John Goodman “Ask a New Orleanean” segments are great for breaking up the heady content but poorly executed. The variety of interviewees is pretty shallow. It’s arguably 15 minutes too long. And while there’s no shortage of technical shortfalls in the film, it’s still worth seeing (today, tomorrow, or whenever you get the chance). Why? Because it is arguably the most important post-Katrina documentary that’s been made.

I’m a former New Orleanean and was living on Jefferson Avenue when Katrina rolled in. Following evacuation I was back in the city by December, and the year following was one of the most impressionable in my life. Thanks to my personal investment, coupled with working in film and television, I’ve seen just about every documentary on the storm or city since. Many have been good, some have been great, but few have had much to add other than more gut-wrenching personal stories. So perhaps the highest praise I can offer The Big Uneasy is that it does have a unique story to tell. At it’s heart, it’s a film that’s less about Katrina and more about the mind blowing incompetence of the Army Corp of Engineers.

Shearer consciously refrains from the human struggles and despair so well covered by Spike Lee and Treme and a dozen other films. Instead, Uneasy works just one central thesis – Katrina was NOT a natural disaster. The film opens with a 3D model explaining the hour by hour levee failures and progression of water flooding into the city. From that moment forward the viewer is bombarded with facts, numbers, technical information and stories of bureaucratic incompetence of the most stunning sort.

There’s so much information in the film that it’s laughable to try fitting it into a single review. What I will say, is that for all the numbers involved and soil analysis and technical detail – it’s a compelling story. The history of the Army Corps of Engineers is overflowing with corruption, but the senate won’t address it because Corps projects mean big money and jobs for constituents. The Corp either saw or should have seem what happened during Katrina from a mile off (I’m not sure which option is more disconcerting), but refused to “look back” following the storm. Thankfully, a team of scientists who funded their own post mortem of the levee system that unequivocally found the Corps was at the heart of the problem. It’s scary. It’s disheartening. It’s the truth.

In the Q&A following last night’s screening at BAM, I asked Shearer why he’d decided to enter the crowded arena of films that had already chimed in on the subject. He answered:

“I’d talked to a lot of the people in the film on my radio show. I’d written about the levy failures for the Huffington Post . . . I’d done my part. Then I was in London the first time President Obama visited the city. He was giving a press conference when he called the flooding “a natural disaster.” It just wasn’t true, and I asked myself, what do people do when they want to reach a mass audience on an issue like this? They make a feature length documentary.”

And that sums up the film. Shearer saw a topic that was being ignored and used his influence to talk about it honestly. The Corp botched the job. The scientists who spoke out about it were intimidated, discredited, and in several cases fired by their universities (let’s just say LSU isn’t a bastion of academic freedom). Despite all The Big Uneasy’s flaws, it’s hard to not fall in love with a project so passionate about what it’s trying to say.

The Big Uneasy is available on Video On-Demand around the country, as well as for sale on Amazon.com. The producers are doing their best to spread the word, so do your part and tweet about it (@thebiguneasy), Facebook it & talk about it.

Mat Newman lives & writes in Brooklyn. Follow him on twitter @mtnewman or check out his website.