Chi-Raq: A review of Spike Lee (2015)

It was the first- weekend in December 2015, and it was the first time in 11- eleven months that I would be able to sleep in my own bed for more than 2- days in a row. I was excited about not having to travel out of town, my recent move to the dirty south, and getting back to my film career. The first order of business was to jump-start the creative side of my brain by supporting Spike Lee’s new theatrical release?Chi-Raq, and Amazon’s first original movie. I was waiting in anticipation and knew that I wouldn’t have a problem finding a show time in the now 34%- African- American city of Atlanta. That was my first mistake to think that a Spike Lee project would get a wide theatrical release, especially, this film that exposes that still in 2015, The Constitution of These United States still doesn’t protect the rights of Black People in America.

Spike Lee’s film?Chi- Raq?deals with the fact that Chicago’s total murders count in my lifetime (since 1968) ranged from a low of 432 to as high as?970– killing per year. In West Garfield Park a Chicago neighborhood that I jokingly call the wild, wild, west where the brothers are cut for a different cloth in 2014 sported a per capita?homicide rate?of 116.7%. Let’s break that down, 1.16 people for every 100,000 – people that live in that community will be killed, shot, beaten to death, or murdered by family, friends, gang members, or the police. This is 26.3% higher than Honduras, Mexico the most violent city on the globe, or 116.7% higher than Oak Park, Illinois one of Chicago’s wealthiest suburbs that just happens to be a 58- minute, or a 3.0-mile walk west of the West Garfield Park neighborhood.

In support of Black cinema, I hesitatingly purchased one- $10.50, ticket 15- minutes after the scheduled ShowTime. However, before walking into the picture show. The words rang out in my head like so many of the gunshots I heard on the Northside, Southside, and Westside of Chicago over my lifetime; before the stick-up man would tell us to assume the position and laid down or get down. I recalled those words spoken by a young Brother during the 2013- American Black Film Festival (ABFF) as my boy and I chilled on at a South Beach café bar. This young Brother said, “I never met any two- older Brothers from Chicago together at one time, Y’all got out of there alive?”

I taught about how helpless and how this artistic film or piece of art as an adaption of the ancient Greek play "Lysistrata” done by Director Spike Lee was about to make me relive the senseless deaths of many friends. But I purchased the ticket and walked into the small box to watch the self-imposed genocide family that is taking place in every Black community throughout the United States of These Americas!

As I walked into to a packed theater, I felt the whipping that Spike Lee was about to dispense on everybody and myself from jump street. I sat down in front of the big screen. I exhaled for a moment and braced myself for this one hour and fifty-seven-minute mind-whipping I paid to see. It started in silence with the opening credit full of semiotics and symbolism with a jig-saw puzzle of guns that make up a map of the RED-WHITE AND BLUE Continental United States over a black screen. As the Red words from the title track?Pray 4 My City?fades onto the screen-

Police sirens, everyday

People DYIN’, Everyday

Mamas Crying, Everyday

Fathers Trying, Everyday

Tryin’ to get my head straight

This the city of Chi-Raq, get your bed made

See death around the corner, boy I dodge him like I owe ’em

which he excises complete control over the storyline.

I knew the mind game was in full effect because for the first three- minutes I was hit with the lyrics from the title track that cut to my core. On top of that, I had to read the blood red lyrics over a black screen. For those of your that don’t know there is never one mistake made in a movie, everything is planned to evoke a reaction in your mind. For example, the color Red subconsciously triggers danger and threat, and the color Black makes a person’s psyche goes directly to death. I kicked back, settled into my seat, and watched this series storyline narrated by Dolmedes (Samuel L. Jackson) in the comedic fashion of Rudy Ray Moore. From the word go, I was prepared to get offended before the first act was complete. I found two reasons to get up out of my seat and run out of the show: first, I felt that this grave subject matter was being taken lightly by Spike Lee by using a “Lysistrata” comic account with characters rhyming through their dialogue. Then I realized that I felt offended when watching all films by Lee.

Spike Lee went back to his roots by making it easier to take the fact that Negros are dying across this land and world in record numbers every day by doing?Chi-Raq?in a musical style similar to School Daze. Before I can get into the depth of this film or any other of Spike Lee’s works we must first come to terms with why his films upset the masses both Black and White so damn much.

A Spike Lee film often isolates an audience due to the internal emotions these films invoke. Movies by Lee make everyone, both black and white, examine their stereotypical beliefs. That is why his films are under-appreciated, not widely viewed, and do not get a wide-screen theater release. This is the case because people do not go to a movie to leave feeling bad about themselves. Since his films get told from a Black perspective with a Black protagonist, it makes people of all races uncomfortable because it addresses their internal racism by presenting it from the oppressed viewpoint vs. the oppressors.

In Lee’s movies, “black women talk to black man, and whites are invited- to learn something about blacks, and also themselves” (Fuchs 4). Everyone is given a glimpse into the racially-stigmatized, low esteem of systemic privilege and how the systemic bigotry of institutional mental slavery affects all people. This forces individuals to examine the hidden prejudices that many people have chosen to lock away somewhere deep in the depths of their minds.

A break from this theme was when Spike Lee opened himself up to the majority with his crossover film?25th Hour?in 2002. I saw that movie at the?Webster Theater in Chicago, and it was the first time I took in a picture by Lee with an all-white audience. I thought maybe he would finally receive the credit he deserved. That notion was short-lived when once again my passing-white looks subjugated me to the white guy in front of me hidden racism.??This bigot stated that “the only reason he was there with his White girlfriend was that they both loved Ed Norton since his neo-Nazi role in?American History X, and that was the only reason he paid to see one of Lee’s movies.” I laughed inside as the lights dimmed and the 40th Acres and A Mule Production credit appeared on the screen. The man shook and lowered his head in disgust.?

Consequently, I thought that film students would be different than the White man in the audience and appreciate Spike Lee’s independent spirit. I learned otherwise on April 4, 2010, during the screening of?4 Little Girls. One student stated that ‘the interviewees’ neck fat was a distraction when talking about the elder Afrikan women and continued to tell the entire theater how that took away from the content of the Birmingham Church bombing. However, just an hour earlier he watched a documentary clip by Michael Moore, a man with a turkey neck, without any problems. Those are both examples of subliminal institutional and internal racism and how people's minds block out information that summons uncomfortable thoughts or their guilty of the past. There is not anything that a Caucasian person can say that will surprise me anymore because during my lifetime I have heard their real racial views. This has become par for the course for this Passing Black person that has been white wasted by his father’s and grandfather’s self-hate. Those are a few examples of why Spike Lee’s films will never receive the credit they are due in a still privileged America.

The American experience that Spike Lee explores does not differ from his counterparts. They come from a man born in Atlanta, Georgia on March 20, 1957. At a young age, he moved to Brooklyn, New York with his family. Lee’s father was a jazz musician, and his mother was a school- teacher. He received his undergraduate communication degree in 1979 from Morehouse College in Atlanta, one of the Historically Black Colleges. That summer Lee did an internship with Columbia Pictures in Los Angeles. After L.A., he continued his studies and received a master’s degree in film in 1982 from The Tisch School of Arts at NYU.?

At Tisch Lee paid homage to Oscar Micheaux, a pioneering Afrikan- American filmmaker. That particular film, The Answer, is a controversial remake of D.W. Griffith’s some called cinematic masterpiece?Birth of a Nation.“[A]… twenty-minute short [about] a young black screenwriter hired to do a rewrite on a $50 million remake of Birth of a Nation. [Lee]… was almost not asked back after his …first year at [Tisch]… because of The Answer” (Fuchs 5). That was his introduction to a controversial film career.

The Answer forced the Tisch faculty at NYU to examine the “racist content [of Birth of a Nation]” (Fuchs 147), a movie adapted from an anti-black, 1905 bigoted melodramatic stage play,?The Clansman” (Dirk). Lee’s short forced them to think about how the film might promote institutional racism as he also forced them to deal with their internal racism. That is why “the thesis was met with great resentment and opposition by the NYU faculty” (Fuchs 147). He defeated his film while continuing at NYU. Later, Spike Lee’s film, Joe’s Bed-Stuy BarberShop: We Cut Heads, would receive a student academy award. And his first feature-length film,?She Gotta Have It, would gain entry into the Cannes film festival. That proves his films’ mise-en-scene, stories, and cinematography are strong aspects that meets industry standards. Therefore, one can conclude that the invoking message of not only The Answer but all the films by Lee are the reasons he is labeled a controversial Blackman. A filmmaker of any other race would be considered a humanitarian for bringing the struggles of race relations to the forefront.

Spike Lee’s upbringing shines in his first studio produced, theatrical release,?School Daze. A movie about the Black College experience and the racial divides within the Black community. Lee draws off his Morehouse College experience so effectively that “one writer says… that there hasn’t been a Hollywood film this black since?Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” (Coleman 3). That realism has the possibility to isolate people and end a filmmaker’s career like it did?Melvin Van Peebles?for over a decade. Lee aired the dirty laundry of Black society throughout. The hair salon musical scene's primary focus addressed the stereotypes among Black people when it comes to light/ dark skinned and good/ bad hair. The airing continued with Dap, (Lawrence Fishburne) the militant character, and with Dap’s girlfriend Rachel, the darkest girl on campus. That showed how Black people are also color-struck. One critic states, “this mixture would work better if an overall mood emerged more clearly, but the incisiveness comes and goes” (Maslin). That coming and going is how Black people relate to one another and Maslin’s inability to watch a movie that is from a Black perspective and a Black protagonist speaks to her internal racism. However,?Roger Ebert?puts it in a nutshell with his statement:

“Spike Lee’s?School Daze?is the first movie in a long time where the?black characters seem to be relating to one another, instead of a hypothetical white?audience… Although the film has big structural problems and leaves a lot of?loose ends,?there was never a moment when it didn’t absorb me, because I felt as if I was watching??the character talk to one another, instead of me.”

Although the film had structural problems, it was able to succeed in the extension of disbelief. Therefore, if a person gets past their internal emotions, Spike Lee can be captive and draw one in like School Daze did to Roger Ebert.

???As a person that saw?School Daze?on a blind date with my future and now ex-wife of twenty years that coming and going is what makes the film work. The excitement of seeing a movie for the first time that spoke to my life experiences was overwhelming. Finally, a picture that spoke to me instead of the “hypothetical white audience.” I saw this FILM at the Dearborn Theater in Chicago while my ex-wife was on spring break from college. I later would attend Talladega College and realize how important the traditions of all the Historically Black Colleges were in the Advancement of Colored people. A tear of joy ran down my face because it was the first time, I felt that someone understood my struggle of being a Blackman that looks white.

Spike Lee’s?Jungle Fever?looks at the social, economic, and emotional destruction of the African American family and how the Blackman in that family has been destroyed. The damage occurs in the workplace, or is self-inflicted with drugs. The movie’s protagonist is Flipper (Wesley Snipes), a Black architect and a preacher’s kid. His brother Gator (Samual L. Jackson) and Gator’s girlfriend Vivian (Hallie Berry) are both addicted to crack cocaine. The two brothers are excellent examples of the issues within the Black community. Flipper’s conflict with his Bosses shows their lack of respect and unwillingness to promote him. Flipper’s authority at work is so limited to the point that he does not ever have a say in the hiring process of his very own secretary. Although he is a well-educated individual he is treated like a child in the business world. The bosses hired an Italian woman whom Flipper will later have an affair with, bringing the color issue to the surface.

Lee stated that the “purpose was to inspect and thereby demolish the sexual stereotypes of the black man as stud nonpareil and white women ass beauty incarnate” (Freeman). Once again, Lee makes the audience uncomfortable by touching on the myths of miscegenation.

Gator and Vivian's relationship and their drug problem are completely another issue. Lee shows the universal effects that drugs are having on the entire Black community, from the insaneness of the addict that will dance for money or rob his mother, to the Good Reverend Father (Ossie Davis) who will kill his son in the name of Jesus. Jungle Fever gives a realistic portrayal of all socioeconomic levels within the Black families and their day-to-day problems of survival from a Black perspective.

Lee does the same thing in?Mo better Blues?by basing the story on his father’s life experiences as a jazz musician in New York. He does that also in Crookyn, but this time draws off his mother’s experiences and her battle with liver cancer. However, that realist Afrocentric aesthetic and his decision to create films that show Black peoples’ social and economic struggles in America has resulted in an uphill battle for Lee. And instead of being seen as an American Storyteller with a Black perspective as he should be. America views him as a big mouth. Why is that?

Is it because he fights for the right to tell the Black Experience from a Black Perspective? That makes a person think that Hollywood only wants the movie about Black people to be told from a white perspective so that the majority can feel good about themselves after viewing them. The following films: The Color Purple, Hustle and Flow, Glory, Ballist, and Training Day are all award-winning movies written and directed by white people. Since Lee choices to make “All of the characters in the film… black. Unlike Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple, She Gotta Have It [and Lee’s films] neither needs white context nor white audiences to which blacks are invited” (Fuchs 4). Looking through the eyes of the oppressed simply makes people uncomfortable, point-blank end of conversation!

Spike Lee’s films still make money even though they do not get a?widescreen theatrical?release. For example,?School Daze largest screen release was 220, Malcolm X (1124),?Jungle Fever (636), and?25th Hour (490). Against those odds Lee still continues to make money and can maintain his independence by not allowing the money of Hollywood to control him as Ossie Davis so finely stated;

He [Spike] does not give much of a damn for Hollywood’s opinion of himself or his works. But he is perfectly willing to use Hollywood money—why not? Spike is and foremost a businessman, tough as nails. But that’s about as close as he will allow Hollywood to come. Leave me the check, go home and wait till I send for you. That’s Spike attitude, reminding me of Malcolm X a little. (Coleman 8)

In conclusion, the system created an increase in the murder rate on the?streets of Chicago when?Superintendent Jody Weis had the brilliant idea to cut the head of the snake by rounding up all of the gang leaders. The only problem with his tactics was he did not replace the gang leadership with any positive influences to help young Black men in Chicago. Either Weis did not?think that far in advance or maybe it was all part of the plan!

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??????????????????????????????WORKCITED

Aftab, Kaleem. Spike?Lee: That’s My story and I’m Sticking to It.?New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2005. Print

Dirks, Tim.?AMC Filmsite. American Classic Movie Company LLC. Web?https://www.filmsite.org/birt.htmlpublication. 20 Apr. 2010.

Ebert, Roger. “School Daze.”?Chicago Suntimes?12, Feb 1988. Web?https://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19880212/REVIEWS/802120303/1023

Freeman, Samuel. Jungle Fever.?New York Times?2 Jun 1991. Web?Lee, Spike.?Robin R. Means Coleman and Janice D. Hamlet, Ed.?Fight The Power! The Spike Lee Reader.?New York: Pater Lang, 2009. Print

—.?Cynthia Fuchs.?Ed.?Spike Lee Interviews.?Jackson: UP Mississippi, 2002. Print.

—.?Paul J. Massood, Ed.?The Spike Lee Reader.?Philadephia: Temple UP, 2008. Print

—.?Gina Richardson. Ed.?X.?Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, 1992. Print

Maslin, Janet. “School Daze.”?New York Times?12, Feb 1988. Web??https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/reviewres=940DE5DD1639F931A25751C0A96E948260

Unknown.“Film” New York Times . 9 July 1989: H37. Print

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