Chi-Raq

I'm a fan of Spike Lee's movies and was expecting to be cajoled into deep thought on today's urban problems by this film. Mr Lee has directed some very good films. Do the Right Thing is still one of my favorites. However, in Chi-raq Mr Lee has taken a highly stylized approach to his subject, and this becomes evident early in the film when every character is speaking in rhyming couplets. This continues nearly unbroken throughout the movie. I must say I found urban poetry in Do the Right Thing, but none in this film. The rhyming began to feel artificial, not conducive to either the mood or the setting, and it quickly wore thin.

Additionally, Mr Lee gave the film a strongly burlesque quality, at times extremely so, and this was clearly meant to be comic. The humor was so exaggerated, however, that it seemed ill- suited to the very serious problem it was trying to address: the murder rate of young African-Americans at the hands of other African-Americans in urban America.

Some reviewers on IMDb have asserted that Mr Lee failed to address the real problem, the "war on drugs", but the topic of the film is more complicated than simple bad law enforcement policy. Lee gave the film a hard sexually charged theme, focusing on reducing violence through female induced sexual abstinence. But he reduces the focus of responsibility in the broader society to white racism, which is likely partially true but not completely so, and even this aspect of the film is presented as burlesque.

The film's principle faults: It is not good drama, it is not good comedy, and it is not a film which provokes much thought on a problem that truly deserves attention.

Chicago is referred to as Chi-Raq. American losses in Afghanistan from 2001 to today amounts to 2349, in Iraq from 2003 to 2011 amounts to 4424, and Chicago from 2001 to 2015 with 7356 murders. Dolmedes (Samuel L. Jackson) refers to ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes' play Lysistrata. Chi-Raq (Nick Cannon) is a rapper. Lysistrata (Teyonah Parris) is his girlfriend. Cyclops (Wesley Snipes) is a local thug. Irene (Jennifer Hudson) suffers the lost of her child from a stray bullet. Lysistrata leads a campaign by the women to withhold sex until the men stop the violence.

Spike Lee takes on a tough subject. The 'solution' is poetic and way too simplistic. I get the allure of pairing the classic Greek play with the present day reality. If nothing else, he's agitating for a solution to this intractable problem. He's not giving up. As for the movie itself, I have a few problems with the cast. John Cusack does not fit as a priest. I accept his Chicago connection and his need to help with this issue. He has never played this type of role and it's very odd to see him here. The General King Kong character is even worst. He is ridiculous. I don't know what Spike Lee is trying to say about the military and what connection they have with the murder rate. On the other hand, Jennifer Hudson's presence is powerful. Overall, this is a mix bag but at least, Spike Lee is willing to tackle the issue like he did so many years ago.

While the movie touches on many problems that Chicago faces, in my opinion it misses the most important one: THE WAR on DRUGS. You can blame gun shows, the NRA, lack of education, etc, all you want, but the fact of the matter is and will remain that the violence isn't because of guns...the huge incarceration rate is not because of guns...it all stems back to the war on drugs. Guns don't kill people, violent gangs do and they do it because of the money associated with the black market drug trade.

Violence, gangs and turf wars are the direct result of the drug trade. Drug dealers rule the streets because the economic opportunities are terrible in the inner-city and because so much can be made from the drug trade. Poor youth see more opportunity in that criminal world than in going to school.

So will eliminating the war on drugs solve the problem? Probably not, but it would be a big step and do a lot to take the power away from the gangs and it would keep the police from arresting black males in epidemic rates.

I could go on and on about how terrible the War on Drugs is for the black community but this is simply a review and I wanted to convey my disappointment that this is not brought up as a substantial issue.

The newest joint from director Spike Lee, is a bizarre experiment for all to see.

Told in a brash tone, preaching with a megaphone, promising to make heads roll, And influenced by the writings of old Aristophanes.

Lysistrata (Parris) is the main squeeze of Chi-Raq (Cannon), A man with hopes to rap and plans attacks with and between two rival clans.

There's similarities between another two households alike in dignity, Down to the the colors worn during their mutiny.

So hopeless is their feud, no faction can collude to end, The violence penned and pent up in the hearts of these men.

So too does Lysistrata makes her nihilism known, Until an innocent is slain by a bullet in stray.

Plotting with Miss Helen (Bassett) and her sisters to atone, The ladies decide to keep their menfolk at bay.

Thus swayed with a solemn oath to end the specter of death, From the streets of the City with Big Shoulders, The women of Chicago swear with resounding shibboleth, To go on sex strike until the violence is over.

Much like this review, the film is in rhyme, which can grind, The gears of many not willing to meet it halfway, The characters imbue parody and are unable to find, Balance between the real and distorted morality play.

Overwrought with the thoughts and ersatz of bathetic farce, There's still something radical with which few can parse; Like when the gals take the armory, like Greeks to the treasury, The choruses of men and women can't help but find, A sincere quest for peace too abstruse for the blind.

Thus this film is a siren's call for peace that should be heard, Even if it is incredibly uneven in places.

The sui generis of such a movie bends to the absurd, Yet the message is true thus putting me in it's good graces.

There was much hullabaloo about it's offensive fantasy, Minimizing the tragedy of a besieged Windy City.

I for one stopped myself from attending a screening, As Chicago is second home thus this treatment is demeaning.

Yet firstly, this film is supposed to be skit and travesty, While the reasons for violence is complex, the act is absurdity! Why not have an expression that typifies the high camp of low brutality.

Why not revel in the message of love, that which comes from above, Below and inside the mourning, healing hearts and souls thereof.

There are many reasons to hate: revenge, opportunity, resource, religion, Politics, poverty, power, cash, race and competition.

Yet there is only one reason for love.

Secondly the source material is Greek in more ways than one, Comprehending the pathos of such a think piece maligned, Appropriates the fields of Thalia, Euterpe and Clio entwined.

It's not the who, what, where or when but why, when all is said and done.

And how strongly you feel by the tears and blood shed, When all players arrived, sheathed in white, bathed in the glory, Indemnified by a campaign ignited by Leymah Gbowee.

They end in the way a comedy should, in jubilation and ascension.

A better understanding made possible by an old form.

In modernity and convention we're given new dimension, With which to understand what's sadly a new norm.

Manipulative? Simplistic? Sexist? Maybe; Greek comedies are not exactly known for their subtlety.

Neither is Lee who hungrily experiments with novelty, Blusters with the voracity of his new expression, Not bothered or concerned with the asylum of discretion.

He's a maverick through and through, taking risks made bear, By a new form first fashioned by the surname Lumiere.

It tries, it fails, it gets back up again and fights the good fight, Using to make right the names of Jackson, Bassett and Snipes.

Is this movie acropolis or apocryphal? Watch and decide.

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First for the "haters" negative Nancy crowd: I'm bright white, don't love or hate Lee and don't know squat about Chicago.

I thought this was pretty solid. All the valid intelligent criticism I've seen involves elements tying this to Aristophanes work.

I get it,gangsta's and Aristophanes are not things that are closely associated but darn it fruity arty farty reviewers should have read a freaking Greek play at least once or twice in life.

I think Lee did an awesome job here. I gave a s*** about Chicago. The use of Aristophanes Lysistrata was a brilliant way to illustrate how long humanity has been doing this dumb crap. It's a fantastic way to illustrate just how universal this nonsense is.He managed to tie a modern day cultural issue's to ancient Greece. It's real daggum difficult to call Lysistrata "a black thing" or blame "thugs".

Kiddies, that "weird stuff" and "sing song" is the classic Greek comedy influences. Chi-Raq is a melding of modern culture and ancient Greek comedy. Now, Disney's Hercules ya'll have seen and loved that movie. The muses that sing all the songs you love? Zero to Hero 'member? You 'member...same thing. Keep that in mind when you're watching Chi-Raq.

It's fine if you hate it, not everyone digs it. Not everyone loves Broadway either, but at least judge it for what it is. Don't condemn it because of or due to ignorance.

Literature is history,we've got to remember that and teach the kids better. This is just depressing. Kind of adds to Lee's point/message though doesn't it?

Ah well, at least nobody is screaming about Lee being a bastid patriarch co opting Lysistrata and perverting it for his male needs...yet.

As for me, it was different, interesting in a good way and funny. It had raunchy humor mixed with some higher brow stuff. It was thought provoking and chees-ily preachy at times. There's thought in this. There's concern.

I think what's best,for me anyway, was that somebody left the box FINALLY and looked at this from an entirely new perspective. It's not the same boxed up thugs and gangsta garbage. It's not classic men vs women tropes. I loved it for it's oddities. I loved it for the new angles on age old problems.