SPIKE LEE FOCUSES HIS LENS ON KATRINA.

Byline: - David Kronke

Spike Lee's ``When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts'' may be portentously overtitled, but it burns with a devastatingly muted fury. If you followed the coverage of Katrina's devastation on New Orleans last August, you could almost at times accuse Lee of understatement.

But subtly, he allows the four-plus hours of his documentary to accumulate into a devastating portrait of not only governmental ineptitude, but of criminal indifference.

This can only be considered a career year for Lee, who, in addition to this wrenching documentary, proved he can make a genre flick as well as anybody with the stylishly smart ``Inside Man'' and also the pilot for CBS' ``Shark,'' which he directed and which is roundly considered the new show most likely to succeed when the fall season begins.

But ``Levees'' is clearly the most personal, most impassioned of Lee's work this year, and if you're not moved -- well, as they say, the terrorists have won.

Tonight's two hours boils down what you saw unravel in real time last year on the cable-news networks into a lean two hours 7/8 the shots of corpses floating in the sewage-strewn waters, FEMA's confused initial response, ad nauseam.

Tuesday's installment heightens the examination of the human toll that Americans -- in America -- were forced to suffer. Racism -- however explicit, or, simply via the lower incomes of blacks in the New Orleans area -- is more incisively explored; a funeral of a young girl abandoned for months until her ultimate discovery is assiduously related. As, finally, is the cultural impact on a unique part of our nation.

Lee also explores the glib attitudes of the Army Corps of Engineers in constructing the levees that failed the city, as well as the criminally negligent response of insurance companies that had ostensibly protected their patrons and, again, FEMA's equally wanting response post-catastrophe.

We all know that our government failed us when Katrina hit.

What Lee most importantly reveals is how it continues to fail fellow Americans in the Gulf Coast -- race be damned -- to this day.

WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS - Four stars

What: Spike Lee explicates Hurricane Katrina.

Where: HBO.

When: Acts I and II premiere at 9 tonight, followed by Acts III and IV at 9 p.m. Tuesday. All four acts will be seen Aug. 29 (8 p.m.-midnight), the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Also repeats throughout September.

In a nutshell: Even if you followed the tragedy closely, you'll learn more than you ever knew.

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Lee's documentary covers the human toll Hurricane Katrina took on New Orleans and the country.