Watched Da 5 Bloods on Nettfix… this is the new Spike Lee flick that went directly to streaming (which makes it, at least for this year, eligible for Academy Award nominations). This flick is a witch’s brew of Spike Lee’s style of anger and righteous indignation, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (including apt reference), and Apocalypse Now (and, really, most every Vietnam war movie).
The movie is about four Vietnam vets who return to the country to locate and bury the remains of a fifth member of their group who died during the war. Incidentally, they may also be looking for a treasure trove of lost CIA gold (but shhh! That’s not the official story). The flick is mostly set in modern day but does flashback to the war where Chadwick Boseman plays their leader and best friend (the one who dies) and the other four older men play their younger selves (without any makeup or digital de-aging).
This is a pretty good movie. It wasn’t originally a Spike Lee script so it holds its own as a modern day action/adventure/drama about ex-soldiers returning to the country where they fought. But its also got enough Spike Lee (and his visual asides) to add additional theme and arguments for things like the plight of the African American soldier during wartime. Plus it has just as much to say about these men as returning Americans and how the Vietnamese see them (and used propaganda on them during the war). It really is an amalgam of thoughts and themes that do manage to hold together.
It’s one of Spike Lee’s better, more cohesive, less sporadic, and funny (hey, 1969 and a picture from Neil Armstrong on “Da Moon”) films. Delroy Lindo – who I don’t think I’ve seen in a few years – does probably his best work as one of the soldiers. His character wears, to the scoffing of his buddies, a MAGA hat which is something I’m sure Spike Lee hates but he gives the character his due and honors him regardless.
I say check this out for whatever reason or a combination of them. Spike Lee is a good film maker, its approach to black servicemen, as a Vietnam war film, as a study of war vets, or even just as a fun adventure story involving stolen gold that everyone wants a piece of. This is a good (and long) flick and it’s on Netflix so that makes catching it very easy.
Score: 85