Focusing on the gang violence in the dangerous areas of Chicago, Spike Lee’s ‘Chi-Raq’ attempts to take a satirical look into the world some people are forced to live in day by day.
The first glimpse of Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq and has been released and it’s a good thing Spike Lee doesn’t back down from controversy since so far, not everyone seems to be on board with the style of the film. Described by Lee as a satire, Chi-Raq (a combination of the words Chicago and Iraq), is a modern day adaptation of the Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes. The basic plot for the movie centers on the murder of a young child hit by a stray bullet, causing a group of women led by Lysistrata to organize against the violence going on in Chicago’s southside. How? According to the trailer, but withholding sex from men.
Spike Lee has come out and said that Chi-Raq is not a comedy, it’s a satire. And it’s definitely true that you can create a satire without it being a comedy, just people are so used to the two going hand in hand in today’s society. The play Lysistrata itself is considered to be a comedy and the way some of the moments in the trailer play out, it almost seems like it’s heading into more comedic territory than making a full on statement. It’s too early to tell right now especially from a two and a half minute trailer, but the way it sounds, Lee may not be getting the reactions he was expecting.
Chi-Raq is directed by Spike Lee, written by Kevin Willmott and Lee, and stars Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes, Teyonah Parris, Jennifer Hudson, Steve Harris, Harry Lennix, D.B. Sweeney, Angela Bassett, John Cusack, and Samuel L. Jackson. Chi-Raq will have a limited release in theaters on December 4, 2015.
