Soundtracking: "Chi-Raq"

by Chris Feil

Few filmmakers understand the power of the soundtrack as well as Spike Lee. The full force iconography of Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” in Do the Right Thing is an integral part of the American cinematic lexicon. But there’s also the era authenticity of Summer of Sam, the haze of jazz over Mo Better Blues, and the largely undiscovered but brilliantly precise filming he did of Broadway’s Passing Strange. It’s a wonder that the closest he’s come to a true musical is Chi-Raq.

Lee feels like a perfect visionary to understand the function and impact of the musical, a director to both embrace the mainstream impulses of the genre and push its limits. And with this first dip into the genre he doesn’t shy away from the stage - it’s a contemporary iteration on Lysistrata, using verse between its musical moments. The result is a film that draws on centuries of narrative tradition and ingrained pain to urgently reflect modern crisis, a risky creative leap that rewards us with something unique. Like its thematic insights, the music if far-reaching and provides a complete experience.

As a director, Lee loves a prologue framing device so the formulas of ancient theatre and musicals suit him well. Before Samuel L. Jackson’s narrator is introduced to us, the film offers a preamble with “Pray 4 My City”, setting the stage for both the violent Chicago world it will immerse us into and its national themes. By subtitling the lyrics in dramatic fashion, Lee immediately connects the audience to the text he is about to unspool, signifying that in this film words carry the weight of blood. And like any musical worth its muster, this opening establishes its emotional stakes as well as defining the world we are about to inhabit. It’s simple but very effective, and rooted in the Greek tradition.

And its world-building continues throughout, beginning inside the hiphop club attended by our hero, Teyonah Parris’ Lysistrata, and expanding its ears to the broken heart of the city. Music becomes its own greek chorus when the film transitions between its long scenes, as if the politically exacting hiphop and gospel between serve as its own emotionally guiding stagecraft. As heightened as the film is due to its source material and the artifice of its language, music actually grounds the film because it creates something tangible to our reality.

As much as we praise imaginative new takes on classics, seldom do they so naturally present our contemporary world as it is. Like the very real pain in the film, music is an access point for its vision.

Chi-Raq gets closest to indulging in full scale musical sequence for a sing-a-long to The Chi-Lites “Oh Girl”. In an attempt to crack the sexual resolve of the women centering their protest inside Chicago’s armory, the song is played at full blast and the pull of the song causes immediate response.In mirrored synchronization, the deceiving men outside and the momentarily moved women inside descend into a cascade of choreographed glory. Proof that those men were on to something: you’re involuntarily swaying too.

For a film that is stone cold serious about its satire, the assuredness of Lee’s handling of its various tones is discovered in tandem with the film’s musicality. It’s a lot of varying tones that make a complete whole, a compelling argument with a wild, convincing imagination.

All Soundtracking installments can be found here!

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