Spike Lee Loved Kendrick Lamar’s Halftime Show Starring Samuel L. Jackson — and Also Saw Those ‘Chi-Raq’ Comparisons
Spike Lee dug Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl LIX halftime show, and he especially liked what he (and others) saw as an homage to his 2015 film “Chi-Raq.”
Lamar cast Samuel L. Jackson as Uncle Sam in his 2025 halftime performance; the character served as a narrator for Lamar’s set during the most-watched Super Bowl in history. Jackson also played a narrator figure in Lee’s “Chi-Raq,” which celebrates its 10-year anniversary this year.
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While film critics quickly gleaned the apparent casting reference, Lee confirmed that he too understood Lamar’s vision to include a reference to his own filmography.
“I want to thank my brother Kendrick for the 40 Acres and a Mule shoutout, which has been the name of my production company since NYU Grad Film School,” Lee wrote on social media. “And I want to send a special shoutout to my Morehouse brother Samuel Jackson who started this Super Bowl Halftime extravaganza as Uncle Sam and you might’ve seen him as Dolmedes in ‘Chi-Raq.'”
Lee continued, “The term 40 acres and a mule was a proposal for reparations to former enslaved African-Americans in the aftermath of the Civil War. The proposal was intended to provide land and resources to help free people achieve economic independence. This promise was ultimately broken. HAPPY BLACK HIS-HERSTORY.”
Jackson also tweeted that it was a “super huge honor to be asked to be part of @kendricklamar halftime revolution.”
“Chi-Raq” was an adaptation of Aristophanes’ ancient Greek play “Lysistrata.” It starred Teyonah Parris as the titular character who protests gang violence by organizing a sex strike in Chicago’s Southside after a child is killed by a stray bullet. Nick Cannon, Jennifer Hudson, John Cusack, Wesley Snipes, and Dave Chapelle co-star. Lee previously told IndieWire’s Anne Thompson that Jackson was cast as the “Greek chorus” narrator “like in ‘Do the Right Thing.'”
Lee will next reunite with another one of his longtime collaborators, Denzel Washington, for an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s “High and Low,” titled “Highest 2 Lowest.” “Highest 2 Lowest” will be the first time that Washington and Lee have worked together since 2006’s “Inside Man.” In total, it’s their fifth film together in addition to “Mo’ Better Blues,” “Malcolm X,” and “He Got Game.”
Jeffrey Wright also will star in “Highest 2 Lowest” alongside A$AP Rocky, Ilfenesh Hadera, and Ice Spice. The film is an Apple Original feature in partnership with A24, which plans to release the film theatrically before it streams on Apple TV+.
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