Spike Lee Pushes Boundaries With Chi-Raq Trailer

Posted on November 3, 2015

Spike Lee released the trailer for his highly-anticipated film Chi-Raq. The film is a modern adaptation of the classic Greek comedy by Aristophanes called Lysistrata. The original play was produced in 411 BC in Athens and tells the account of a brave woman named Lysistrata who leads a campaign to stop the Peloponnesian War.

She achieves her goal in a very unusual way: she rallies all the women and convinces them to withhold sex until the men agree to negotiate a peace treaty and stop fighting. The anti-war comedy is a raunchy romp and is considered one of Aristophanes' greatest achievements. Spike Lee has updated this classic play and set it in the South Side of Chicago where gang violence is rampant and the death rate is higher than that of Special Forces in Iraq.

Samuel L. Jackson is the narrator in the trailer, he plays Dolmedes. Teyonah Parris plays Lysistrata. La La Anthony is Hecuba, Val Warner is Electra Johnson,Jennifer Hudson is Irene, Wesley Snipes is Cyclops. John Cusak plays Father Mike Corridan, who is based on Father Michael Pfleger, a the legendary activist Roman Catholic priest who has advocated for the rights of his parishioners.

D.B. Sweeny is Mayor McCloud. The film also stars Nick Cannon, Anya Engel-Adams, Angela Bassett, and David Patrick Kelly. Dave Chappelle shows up as a strip club owner who bemoans the lack of strippers after Lysistrata implements her plan.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is furious that Spike Lee called his film Chi-Raq, although that term has been used for quite a while. The mayor had a meeting with Lee to try to talk him out of using that name, but Lee stuck to his guns and called the mayor a "bully."

Will Chi-Raq finally net Spike Lee that Oscar? It's a real possibility, although the Academy is not overly fond of comedies for Best Picture, even those with a releavant social message. At a minimum he's probably looking at a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for the sheer boldness of adapting an Aristophanes play for 2015 audiences. Take a look: