Spike Lee’s Chiraq…Is it an Exploitive Mockery or a Wisdom Tale?

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Indeed a satire of the murder madness in Chicago could be seen by some to be marginalizing a life and death issue.


Spike Lee the famous black film director has satirized the Chicago murder epidemic in the black community with a Greek mythological tale about Greek woman—who in order to end the Peloponnesian war raging a that time refused sex to their men.

Spike has modernized this fable and applied it to the Chicago of today in his film. The name of the film is a combination of Iraq—denoting the massive violence there—and Chicago—combining the two to create CHIRAQ….a modern drama-comedy satire.

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The Chicago Rapper, Chance The Rapper doesn’t think its too cool

Chicago artist Chance The Rapper took to Twitter this afternoon to subtweet Spike Lee, criticizing the motivations of the Brooklyn director’s satirical new dramedy “Chi-raq.” The film, which goes into limited release today, examines gang violence in Chicago’s South Side through the lens of that classic Aristophanes joint, “Lysistrata.”

“Let me be the one from Chicago to personally tell you we not supporting this film out here”

“The people that made that # didn't do so to "Save Lives". It's exploitive and problematic”

“Also the idea that women abstaining from sex would stop murders is offensive and a slap in the face to any mother that lost a child here”

Here is Spike’s take on it:

In the Aristophanes play, the eponymous Lysistrata convinces other Greek women to withhold sex to successfully end the Peloponnesian War.
“It’s a satire,” Lee just told a crowd during a streaming interview with AOL. “The whole sex strike thing is a metaphor for how there’s a power within yourself to change the world.”
“Parts of Chicago are the murder capitol of the world,” Spike continued, seemingly fed up with negative press, during the q-and-a portion of the interview. “That’s not Spike Lee making # up.”

In theory I think it’s okay myself, but I haven’t seen the movie so I’ll reserve judgment.
Satirizing serious human issues is a long held tradition in American drama and media so doing it in itself cannot be harmful or wrong...
It may be that people don’t understand the artistic value of satirizing any human problems
One thing’s for sure any awareness of the tragedy in Chicago may be a good thing

Others have found the idea wanting as well.www.chicagotribune.com...

I attended the film's premiere at the Chicago Theatre on Sunday night, ahead of its opening in theaters across the country. At the end of the movie, I had no more insight into Chicago's violence-plagued neighborhoods than when I went in.

Though I'm sure many will enjoy the movie
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More than anyone, people survivin impoverished police states understand the hypocrisy of the gubment sowing humanity and democracy bombs in foreign lands while ignoring the open sores at home.

a reply to: intrptr

I hope people get that point out of this movie.

a reply to: Willtell

Up in the house? Not likely.

To most main stream swimmers, just another black, gangsta rap film.

I want to see this movie. Chicago has always been a very violent place but now it's just out of hand from what I hear.

Why doesn't Spike stick to Brooklyn and what he knows . Perhaps he can make a movie about gentrification? I will wait to see the film before I critisize it but with Spike Lee's track record I am not feeling too enthusiastic. I am from Chicago and used to cruise those streets looking for blows. You never hear about white people getting shot, because they are the money. It's simple economics. I wish black people would be more pissed off about all this, but the movie could have been done without making the situation into a satire.

ugg anything with nik canon is a definite no for me! :/