Spike Lee's 'Chi-Raq' trailer tours a Chicago torn apart by gang violence

Spike Lee uses the mass epidemic of gun-related deaths in Chicago as the backdrop of his latest movie, "Chi-Raq," which is a modern-day retelling of the ancient Greek play "Lysistrata."

In the play, written by Aristophanes, we follow one woman's mission to end the Peloponnesian War by convincing the women around her to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace.

Lee takes that idea and places it in current Chicago, where, the trailer tells us, the homicides have surpassed the death toll of American forces in Iraq.

The film has an all-star cast that includes Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Hudson, Angela Bassett, Dave Chappelle, and Samuel L. Jackson, who, if the trailer indicates correctly, will be our narrator through the film.

Watch the trailer below. "Chi-Raq" opens December 4 in theaters and on Amazon. It's Amazon's first feature film production to be released in theaters.

 

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