Louisiana movies

There were a lot of reminders that the dreadful Katrina hurricane happened 20 years ago. Made me think: wonder if I could find enough Louisiana movies to make a column? Indeed, I discovered a treasure trove! 

I’ll start with the best movie about the Katrina disaster. When The Levees Broke (2006) started life as an HBO documentary directed by none other than Spike Lee. He began filming fairly soon after Katrina struck, showing the devastation almost as it happened and interviewing victims and constricted leaders. Included here because it is the best film about Katrina and is available in several streaming sites. One of the heartbreaks about Katrina is that if the levees had held the damage would have been minimal. But they didn’t hold.

All The King’s Men, is Robert Penn Warren’s thinly disguised biographical novel about The Kingfish, Huey Long, who ruled Louisiana politics until an assassin stopped him. There are two film versions of the story, both good. The 1949, with Broderick Crawford in his top career performance, is hard to beat. Well, it won the Best Movie Oscar. But the 2006 version with Sean Penn in the lead role and Jude Law as his assistant is also very good. Both films detail how Willie Stark (Long) started out as a reformer and fairly quickly started resorting to graft and corruption to get his way. 

Blaze (1989) is another fable about Louisiana politics with Paul Newman starring as Governor Earl Long and Lolita Davidovich as Blaze Starr, the stripper who became his mistress and companion. Long is so outrageous he is hospitalized for his mental state. But he later wins an election to Congress, then dies before he gets there. Blaze is by his side throughout, to the dismay of his staff. Some of this is supposed to be “based on a true story”, whatever that means.

The Big Easy (1996) is the term used for New Orleans, and is the name of a movie about it. Dennis Quaid portrays Detective Remy who attempts to convince ADA Ann Osborne (Ellen Barkin) to understand “how things are done” in New Orleans. Various nefarious cops are played by Ned Beatty and John Goodman and some of the criminals are somehow finally caught. For once, a film was actually shot where the story happens, that is, in New Orleans. And it is well done, you can almost feel the humidity and heat. 

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) is an extremely weird film that celebrates quite another part of Louisiana, the swampy bayous. Quvenzhane Wallis stars as six-year-old Hushpuppy, childhood resident of The Bathtup, a location for several homes in the middle of the swamp. Wallis became, at 11, the youngest Oscar nominee ever. To save their homes the residents blow a hole in the levee, letting the water out from their location. This backfires and there are supernatural creatures involved in the story. This is one of those films I do not at all understand, but I liked it. 

    All of the films in this article are for grownups. Next time- more Louisiana.