Chi-Raq – Film Review by Frank L.

Directed by Spike Lee
Writers: Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee
Stars: Nick Cannon, Teyonah Parris, Wesley Snipes

The names of Iraq and Chicago have been combined to create a new nickname, Chiraq, for Chicago, because of the number of shootings and killings on its streets. Spike Lee and co-writer Kevin Wilmott have taken the ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes and transposed it to the south side of the city and the Englewood area in particular. An area of disadvantage where the predominant population is African American. Guns are an integral part of the community as is exuberant rap music. With guns comes the shootings and the deaths. As so often is the case, it is the women in a community who bear the far reaching burden of the violence. They have few stratagems at their disposal to bring it to an end. However to withdraw collectively their vaginas from male penetration is a threat they can collectively implement. Lee creates a series of varied scenes as the women implement their new collective strategy.

The film starts with a rap song whose words are not politically correct but they are easy to understand as they are printed up on the screen. It is a disturbing beginning. Subsequently some of the monologues and dialogues are difficult to comprehend because of the speed at which the words are spoken but the general drift of what is being said is clear enough.

Obviously ancient Greece is markedly different to Englewood today. Perhaps in the easy availability of sex in urban sprawls makes nowadays the power of women greater, if they decide to withdraw their bodies from intercourse, than it was over two thousand years ago.  Lee probes this idea as a means of curtailing the violence. He utilises all the razzmatazz of contemporary dance music and choruses as his no nonsense women wearing chastity belts gyrate to proclaim their message. It is exuberant, it is energising. It contains moments of comedy naturally enough as the women implement their “strike”. Because of the violence there is inevitably a lot of tears and being America there are way, way out church services.

This is not a movie for those who dislike colourful language but it is a fine take on highlighting the problem of gun violence in Chicago today (and no doubt many other places) and the need to think outside the box on how to bring the senseless violence to an end.