Chi-raq

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: Spike Lee/Starring: Teyonah Parris, Nick Cannon, Samuel L. Jackson, John Cusack, Wesley Snipes, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson, D.B. Sweeney and Dave Chappelle

One never knows what Spike Lee will come up with though it's a sure thing that the subject matter will focus on African-American issues, of which he has many trenchant things to say and express. In his latest film, he combines social commentary with drama, farce and song and dance and achieves a synthesis that is imaginative, informative and ultimately entertaining. Chi-raq may be his most inspired film in years and most daring, as he not only adapts Aristophanes' Lysistrata, he also turns it on its head by setting in present day Chicago.

Aristophanes' play; set during the Peloponnesian War, tells the story of a group of women, led by Lysistrata, who attempt to end the bloody conflict by refusing their men sex. Lee's story takes place on a different battlefield; one just as violent and bloody: the gang wars in Chicago's streets. As the wars rage in the streets, bodies of bystanders begin to accrue until Lysistrata (Teyonah Parris) decides she has seen enough. Though the story is Aristophanes', the conflict depicted in Lee's film is drawn from recent events in Chicago. What distinguishes Lee's film from the Greek dramatist's is how he chooses to tell his story. What they have in common is the theme of female empowerment.

One may immediately notice, from the film's opening lines, is the dialogue, which is declaimed in a rhyming, lyrical manner that is faithful to both Aristophanes and hip-hop.

Subtitles at the beginning of the film offer the audience sobering statistics about the casualties of gang violence on Chicago streets, whose numbers exceed the total number of casualties from both the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars.
Chicago, or Chi-raq; as its referred to by city inhabitants, is the battleground of two warring gangs: the Spartans and the Trojans. Lysistrata's boyfriend and local rap star; Chi-raq (Nick Cannon), is the Spartan leader whose forces battle the Trojans and their leader Cyclops (Wesley Snipes).

Serving as the story's narrator is the hip Dolmedes (Samuel Jackson); who appears periodically in immaculate duds to help the narrative along.

Fed up with the death toll from the Spartan/Trojan gun battles, Lysistrata conceives the aforementioned plan whereby the women from both sides of the conflict deny their men sex as a radical approach to ending the violence. Thinking they can merely transfer their amorous activities elsewhere, the men find all the women in the community; including strip clubs, have joined Lysistrata's strike as well. Denied their carnal pleasures, the men try to turn the tables on the women only to find Lysistrata has organized the women only too well. Before long, she and her women army seize control of an armory.

As Lysistrata's plan takes effect the men scramble to find a way to free themselves from the lockout. Joining the call for a cessation to the violence is Father Mike Corridan (John Cusack); a white clergyman who is sympathetic to Lysistrata's plan. Corridan's emotionally-charged sermon at a funeral honoring a gang-war casualty serves also as an invective about the problem of gun-related violence in black, urban America. Meanwhile, Lysistrata finds her movement has become a national and international phenomenon.

Though we see several dance numbers where Spartan and Trojan women shake their booty provocatively, Lee never lets us forget the very serious issue at the heart of the film.
And though Lysistrata's solution to the violence is fanciful at best, it makes for a terrific premise for a film, which Lee exploits not only for maximum entertainment but to express a cogent message.

Chi-raq shows how Lee can be a feverishly-imaginative director. Setting Aristophanes' play in modern day Chicago and substituting a gang-war for the Peloponnesian conflict is refreshingly original.

Teyonah Parris is a delightful Lysistrata; her scalding sexuality and powerful presence make the men seem boyish. We don't often have a chance to see Angela Bassett in films, but here she is quite terrific and lends her own stalwart presence to the proceedings.
I suppose Lee could have knocked twenty minutes or so off the running time but that's a minor quibble. Some critics I've read think John Cusack's sermon is a significant mistake but I understand Lee must have felt a funeral oration delivered by a white man might make a more powerful impact. I haven't made up my mind about it but I didn't find it to be a glaring error (if it is one).

I took Lee's message to heart but also had a great time watching a movie that employed multiple-genre conventions to to forge its own significant, interpretation of Aristophanes. I think it was a mistake to release it during big-screen spectacle season but maybe it will hold its own. We can only hope.