Da 5 Bloods (2020) ★★★★½
I had been intending to watch this since it was first put on Netflix so I'm feeling somewhat guilty that it took a shock of yesterday's sad news about Chadwick Boseman to make it my Friday night viewing.
Unsurprisingly, Spike Lee's politics are front and centre – it's a film deeply rooted in the Black Lives Matter movement, Trump's presidency and the upcoming presidential election, so I was surprised when I discovered the script was originally written in 2013 and had been more recently developed.
Of the cast, I've loved watching Delroy Lindo since I first saw Mulholland Drive many years ago and casting two mainstays from The Wire (Clarke Peters and Isiah Whitlock Jr.). With Chadwick Boseman playing 'Stormin' Norman', the squad leader who the other 'Bloods' go back to find, the scenes involving Norman's death and grave now have an added poignancy and are even more emotive than they would have been last week.
Da 5 Bloods looks fantastic thanks to great locations and superb cinematography by Newton Thomas Sigel. The score, by long-time Spike Lee collaborator Terence Blanchard is a stunning composition which should earn him many industry nominations and awards.
Making a film about the Vietnam War Is tricky because directors often play the 'America as victim' card or fall into the racist trap of making every Vietnamese person appear suspicious and dangerous. By explaining how the conflict turned family members against each other and it's a lot more nuanced than the typical Manichean narrative. With the storyline incorporating the past and present, Lee has created something both cathartic and hopeful.
This is a phenomenally impressive film by Spike Lee, possibly even more impactful than 2018's BlacKkKlansman and, like that, I can't think of another director who could have made this film.
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