‘Da 5 Bloods’ Review

Spike Lee is a director who does not shy away from spreading his message. He is not concerned about being too in your face about his message. He has a story and a message that he wants to get across and he does so with his films. Da 5 Bloods is one of his fiercest movies that expresses ideologies that are incredibly relevant and are absolutely important for people to understand.

Plot

Da 5 Bloods is directed by Lee and is about a group of Vietnam war vets who go back to Vietnam in order to get the remains of a friend back to America and to find gold that they had left behind. Throughout the movie, the crew deals with issues that have stemmed from the war that remain present while also confronting certain trauma that they still have from the war. 

Da performances are excellent

The highlight of this film is the performances of the 5 main members of the crew who we follow throughout the film. They are all excellent, but Delroy Lindo absolutely steals the movie. He plays a character who really never left Vietnam. Since he left, he was never the same and was clearly haunted by the events of the war and his actions during it. 

The longer he stays in Vietnam, the more he begins to descend into insanity. Lee does a good job at conveying his PTSD without taking advantage of it. It is never too over the top and Lindo should have received more acclaim for this performance. 

The film’s story is very emotional and really captivated me throughout. It does a great job at exploring each of these characters and the impact that the war had on them. It also looks at some of the anger that they feel towards American racism that they have experienced. 

A different look at Vietnam

Many African American war veterans had to come back to a country where they experienced racism and inequality which made them question what they were even fighting for. This is an idea that remains very relevant and it is explored in great detail here. There are a lot of elements about the racial tension that I did not know about that are shown in this movie which I really found enlightening.

There are also flashbacks that show their experience in Vietnam as well as the fifth member of their crew played wonderfully by Chadwick Boseman, who had died during the war. 

An interesting choice that Lee makes is that he does not recast or de-age the characters for these sequences. I did not find this distracting and thought that it added even more to their characters. It allowed us to see how they still are connected to the war even after leaving it.

Spike Lee doesn’t hold back

The filmmaking as a whole is also incredible. The cinematography is breathtaking at times as they tread through the jungles of Vietnam. The shots are all really well framed and always show a lot more than it is focusing on. There are moments of suspense, comedy, drama, and sometimes even horror. I also thought the music really added to the atmosphere and tone.

It is also more violent than I was expecting. There are moments that are quite shocking. The film doesn’t really get violent until the halfway point, but once it starts, it really does get disturbing at points. 

Lee does mix in some real footage from the war and a lot of it is frightening, but it does let the audience know about the horrors that the characters are addressing. It lets you know why some of the characters are traumatized or why there is tension between the Vietnamese and Americans.

The only complaint I have about this movie is Jean Reno’s character. He isn’t bad, but I felt like his character is out of place. He feels like a character that should be in a spy movie and not a political war drama. His subplot creates a shootout during the climax that felt out of place.

Final verdict

Overall, Da 5 Bloods is one of the best movies that I have seen so far this year. It is a long movie at 2 hours and 35 minutes, but I was captivated for the entirety. There was never a moment where I was bored or wanted to stop watching. This is the first movie this year that I can see people talking about again once we get close to the Academy Awards. Spike Lee delivers a powerful movie with an equally as powerful statement.

Final score: 4.5/5