Da 5 Bloods
Director: Spike Lee
Starring: Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr. Mélanie Thierry, Paul Walter Hauser, Jasper Pääkkönen, Johnny Nguyen, Sandy Huong Pham, Chadwick Boseman. Van Veronica Ngo
Rating: R
Runtime: 154 minutes
A couple of months after he debuted a striking short film about life in a coronavirus-altered New York City Spike Lee’s latest feature returns to the racially-charged focus that the legendary filmmaker is known for. Now streaming on Netflix, Da 5 Bloods is everything one expects from a Spike Lee Joint: a powerful, uncompromising work filled with righteous anger at the systemic racism that fills American history and still runs rampant today. More specifically, the film focuses on the experiences of black veterans in a war drama that also reckons with the immorality and long-term impacts of the Vietnam War.
The film’s present-day storyline finds the four surviving members of the titular Bloods (a nickname for their military unit) returning to Vietnam to recover both the remains of their fallen squad leader Stormin’ Norman (Chadwick Boseman) and the large quantity of gold they had hidden nearby on his orders. The four living Bloods include affluent Eddie (Norm Lewis), who arranged both the trip and the group’s deal with a French fence to illicitly extract the government gold, the relatively jovial Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), quiet Otis (Clarke Peters), and traumatized, misguided Trump supporter Paul (Delroy Lindo). Just before the group sets out on their quest in earnest they’re joined by Paul’s son David (Jonathan Majors), with whom he shares an immensely troubled relationship. Flashbacks also chronicle the original mission to secure the gold, which the CIA was using to fund indigenous people to serve as allies against the North, and other key experiences the Bloods had with Norman.
Following up an acclaimed, unique drama like the Oscar-nominated BlacKkKlansman is not an easy task but Lee does so effortlessly, delivering another instant classic that both reflects on history and makes striking, necessary observations about the present in a stylish package. Many of the legendary filmmakers’ frequent techniques and stylistic flourishes are present, with frequent use of archival footage of real-life civil rights events and discourse, including an opening montage of 60’s and 70’s activism mixed with recognizable images from Vietnam and the African American community’s reaction to it, and closing with an excerpt from a speech by Dr. King. Lee also makes frequent use of his trademark cutaways to stock images and other archival footage to include his feelings on current events, with a particularly amusing scene coming when the rest of the Bloods mock Paul for his support of Trump and the border wall and the film cuts to the famous image of the singular black Trump supporter at a rally.
But Lee also challenges himself, making use of new stylistic choices that increase the viewers’ level of immersion in the Bloods’ journey. This is especially apparent in the flashback sequences to the Bloods’ service. At the beginning of each flashback, the film overtly switches aspect ratios to a tighter frame with more grainy image quality, replicating the feel of contemporary news footage of the war. And having Lewis, Whitlock, Peters, and Lindo appear in these sequences as they are rather than having a set of younger actors take on the roles helps convey how the characters’ experiences at the time still weigh on them. This choice was not wholly artistically motivated. As Lee himself has noted the use of CGI technology to de-age the actors as in The Irishman wasn’t financially feasible for the film, which had a reported budget of between $35 and $45 million. Regardless, it winds up being one of his most powerfully effective choices. The conspicuous age difference between Boseman and the other main actors emphasizes the tragedy of Norman’s death given how we see his friends at points in their lives he never got to reach.
The film wears its war movie and other influences on its sleeve, with Apocalypse Now being especially heavily referenced. The characters party at a nightclub themed after the older film, “Ride of the Valkyries” is played, and the iconic shot of helicopters flying in front of the blazing sun is recreated, among other overt references. But the film’s connection to its predecessor is more than just aesthetic. Just like their counterparts’ in Coppola’s famous effort the Bloods’ very sanity is tested with increasing severity the further they go in their seemingly endless journey, with the already deeply damaged Paul falling the furthest into madness (it’s hard to discern, what, if any, feelings towards Apocalypse Now‘s own controversial source material, Heart of Darkness, Lee expresses). Part of the blame for this downward spiral goes to the corrupting power of wealth, a theme Lee and company thoroughly examine. It feels wrong to call the film a study of greed, because, as it argues, the Bloods are all more than entitled to the reward they seek after they risked their lives defending a country that continues to exploit and mistreat them. But it’s hard to think of a better way to describe the paranoid, territorial desires that push them to commit increasingly heinous acts. The film’s other major thematic fixation is, of course, the ramifications of war but it provides a much more comprehensive examination of the topic than many other films in the genre. The Bloods’ struggles with PTSD and similar issues are the most fleshed out but the film also differentiates itself from many past Vietnam films by devoting considerable attention to how the war continues to impact and influence the country and its people to this day
The film’s cast is very strong across the board, including the actors with smaller roles as non-Blood characters. But Delroy Lindo is a clear standout, giving an electrifying performance for the ages that makes Paul’s complex, difficult emotional journey one of the most haunting cinematic character studies in years. Even if this were a regular year with more clearly defined and plentiful competition Lindo should be the front runner for all leading actor honors.
Da 5 Bloods‘ focus on the experience of black veterans makes it more topically specific than some of Lee’s other racially-focused films. It might be a surprise to some viewers, for example, to find only minimal mention, in either its archive footage or dialogue of the issue of police brutality in America that is such a central topic of social discourse at the moment. But while it may not tap as directly into the zeitgeist as a film like BlacKkKlansman did, it’s just as powerful and exudes the same kind of indignation at the institutional oppression of African Americans. It’s everything one could want from a Lee film and more.
Da 5 Bloods
Spike Lee's latest is a moving tribute to black veterans rich with cinematic influences and bolstered by a gripping performance from Delroy Lindo.
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Writing9
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Acting9.5
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Production9.5