Da 5 Bloods
Directed by: Spike Lee
Written by: Danny Bilson & Paul De Meo & Kevin Willmott & Spike Lee
Starring: Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock, Jr., Chadwick Boseman, Mélanie Thierry, Paul Walter Hauser, Jasper Pääkkönen, Johnny Trí Nguyen, Le Y Lan, Nguyen Ngoc Lam, Sandy Huong Pham, Jean Reno
Drama/War - 156 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 11 Jun 2020
Written by: Danny Bilson & Paul De Meo & Kevin Willmott & Spike Lee
Starring: Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock, Jr., Chadwick Boseman, Mélanie Thierry, Paul Walter Hauser, Jasper Pääkkönen, Johnny Trí Nguyen, Le Y Lan, Nguyen Ngoc Lam, Sandy Huong Pham, Jean Reno
Drama/War - 156 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 11 Jun 2020
The New York City filmmaker, the man who knew how to incorporate 9/11 into 25th Hour, who showed us the Bronx in 1977 in Summer of Sam, 1973 Brooklyn in Crooklyn, and turned the world’s head when he let loose Do the Right Thing about the hottest day of the year in Brooklyn, jets to Southeast Asia to shoot on location in Thailand and Vietnam. Spike Lee explored the black soldier’s experience before with World War II’s Buffalo Soldiers in Miracle at St. Anna, but he jumps ahead 25 years now into the heart of the Vietnam War for Da 5 Bloods. Four vets in their 60s return to the setting which defined the rest of their lives to not only dig up long buried gold, but dig up ghosts. There is action and drama aplenty, but Lee isn’t here to just entertain us; he never is, he’s here to educate us. We’re on a guided tour of how the black man is the foundation of the United States of America yet has only received scorn and torment in return.
As usual, there is nothing shy about the introduction to Lee’s film. He’s upfront about his message - subtlety is for suckers. Mohammed Ali explains why he has no business going overseas to kill people in Vietnam, there’s napalm searing the skin off little children, and speeches from Malcolm X and Bobby Seale. Why does the black man, 11% of the U.S. population, represent 32% of the soldiers in Vietnam? It seem like as in the Civil War, the folks with means were able to exploit their resources and send representatives in their stead. Stormin’ Norman (Chadwick Boseman, Black Panther) explains a black man gave his life for the United States of America even before there was such an entity; Crispus Attucks was the Boston Massacre's first casualty.
As usual, there is nothing shy about the introduction to Lee’s film. He’s upfront about his message - subtlety is for suckers. Mohammed Ali explains why he has no business going overseas to kill people in Vietnam, there’s napalm searing the skin off little children, and speeches from Malcolm X and Bobby Seale. Why does the black man, 11% of the U.S. population, represent 32% of the soldiers in Vietnam? It seem like as in the Civil War, the folks with means were able to exploit their resources and send representatives in their stead. Stormin’ Norman (Chadwick Boseman, Black Panther) explains a black man gave his life for the United States of America even before there was such an entity; Crispus Attucks was the Boston Massacre's first casualty.
Norman is the film’s most enigmatic character, the guy we want to spend time with. However, Norman was killed in the flashback battle we return to again and again. His other four squad mates all made it back home, began normal lives, but could never shake what happened to them in the jungle. PTSD is the obvious answer, but that term did not enter the popular vernacular until Operation Iraqi Freedom. The member most affected by his earlier trauma is Paul (Delroy Lindo). He describes nightly terrors, how Norman visits him in his sleep, and makes no bones about his support for Trump while wearing a MAGA cap daring someone to confront him about it. Everyone can see Paul is a ticking time bomb waiting to burst. He can’t look at a Vietnamese boy missing a leg begging for money at his table. He squirms in his skin as a man puts the hard sell on him to buy a chicken. Perhaps Paul feels guilty about what he most likely did to their parents all those years ago or the gut-wrenching guilt he shoulders will not allow him to look the Vietnamese in the eye.
Paul’s best mate in the group is Otis (Clarke Peters, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri). Otis was the squad medic, is a bit more level-headed and practical than the rest, but also returns to the country eager to check in with the woman he left behind. Paul, trusting nobody, has a way of looking at Otis as both his best friend and his worst enemy, depending on whether or not Otis agrees with his latest outburst. Not everyone in a group of four can enjoy front-and-center status in a film; therefore, Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr., Pete's Dragon) and Eddie (Norm Lewis, Winter's Tale) are less developed and more around to fill out Da 5 Bloods. Paul’s son, David (Jonathan Majors, Hostiles), joins the group in an underhanded manner, but annoys Paul more because he’s a reminder of how shitty of a father he was more than anything else.
In the movies, if there is a small group and gold is involved, expect some gold madness, Treasure of the Sierra Madre style. There is even a joke about “badges”. When this much money is on the line, just how much can you trust your blood brother? Yet, gold is only the tip of the iceberg. The men tell their tour guide and anyone else asking they are on a mission to find the body of their old squad leader, Norman. It was Norman’s idea to bury the gold, to give it to “the cause” when they came back later to fetch it. It’s hard to imagine men who have lived the best lives they could have led may retain the same altruism all these decades later.
I love Spike Lee movies. He has a vision and fuck you if you’re not on board. His tone here says, “This is my Vietnam movie asshole!” He has his own use for Apocalypse Now’s “Ride of the Valkyries”. He shoots his flashbacks in 16mm, the same way they would have looked on late ‘60s television screens. He plays with the aspect ratio, which does not fully open up until the crew sets off into the jungle. Almost all of the soundtrack is Marvin Gaye songs from the “What’s Going On” album. It is perfect accompaniment. That album followed a soldier’s experiences in the Vietnam War and into another war back home - civil rights. Lee says slaves built this country and African American boys have fought in all of its wars, but what has their country given back to them? Will it be gold or the ghost of trauma’s past this time around?
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