“Black G.I., is it fair to serve more than the white Americans that sent you here? Nothing is more confusing than to be ordered into a war to die or to be maimed for life, without the faintest idea of what’s going on.”
Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods opens on a clip of Muhammad Ali commenting on why he won’t fight on behalf of America against the Vietnamese who have done him no harm. What follows is a collage of imagery and footage of other African-Americans doing exactly that, intercut with iconic moments of 60s and 70s American history and scenes of disenfranchised, persecuted, and murdered black people in the United States. It’s a brief timeline that illustrates with harsh reality both the world of war black soldiers were faced with and the world of hate that they were ostensibly fighting for. Unsurprisingly this bleak dichotomy is key to one of the most important films Lee has made in his over thirty year career.
It is sadly appropriate that Da 5 Bloods should hit now, in the midst of such an international movement against racism; when the same all powerful hand of white supremacy that sent a disproportionate percentage of black soldiers to die on the front lines in Vietnam, is seeing police officers assault, suppress, and murder black civilians in America. But Spike Lee is nothing if not timely, and at a point when we as a society are examining among other things, black culture, here drops a vital film that interprets one of the defining conflicts of the latter half of the twentieth century and its aftermath through a distinctly black lens.
This it does while also being an exciting war treasure story, about four aging veterans returning to Vietnam with one of their sons to find the remains of their squad leader and the crates of buried gold they’d uncovered and left behind. As the movie follows their trek, the tensions and horrors they encounter along the way, it periodically incorporates flashbacks (through wonderful match cuts and visual parallels, not to mention a shift in aspect ratio and colour grade) to the mission where the titular Five Bloods were first shot down, came upon the gold, and lost their charismatic idealist leader ‘Stormin’ Norm (Chadwick Boseman). The most immediate, curious thing you note about these flashbacks is that the older actors are neither re-cast nor digitally de-aged. They appear as the old men they are in the present, interacting with Norm and that deadly environment, because in their reminiscing, that past has always been present for them. To some, but most especially Paul (an astounding Oscar-worthy Delroy Lindo), they’ve never left the trauma of Vietnam or the brotherhood they had while there.
This fusing of past and present allows the film a unique and searing resonance, as the conflicts of the war, both interpersonal and political, are directly linked with the here and now. Conversations the soldiers have about the issues facing black people in America and being drafted into a futile war mirror those had around racism today. One particularly affecting scene is of the Bloods listening to Hanoi Hannah (Veronica Ngo) broadcasting the news of the assassination of MLK and the subsequent government response to the ensuing riots back home, with photos from the episodes overcast on the frame. It is chilling how familiar those images are in light of recent events. Emphasis is made of how little credit or recognition black veterans received after the war through name-dropping a handful of the accomplished or heroic black men who served. And of course the wounds continue to linger. Otis (Clarke Peters) has a daughter with a woman he met in Saigon who we’re told had a difficult childhood due to her mixed-race. Paul, whose own demons and abrasive individualism implicitly led to him becoming an open Trump supporter, still harbours racist feelings towards the Vietnamese and a paranoia against the other Bloods. The land they’re excavating bears the signs of having been devastated by napalm and is dotted with still active minefields.
Lee, always adept at channeling his righteous anger, allows these scars to be vivid and burning, to show how they’ve festered. A Vietnamese merchant at one point lashes out at the group for “killing his father”, and of course it is Vietnam militia men challenging the Bloods over the gold, which they believe is rightfully theirs. The pain goes both ways, only united in being brought about by white supremacy. Lee doesn’t sugarcoat this where other filmmakers of his stature might, and still refuses to shy away from his provocative tendencies. Consider the shot you might have seen, if not the actual movie, of Boseman’s Norm at a low angle in grainy photography, a gun in one hand, his fist clenched to the camera in the other -an image no doubt designed to evoke the symbolism of Black Power. Or another vital moment near the end of the film depicting a terribly violent scene with a very particular placement of Paul’s drenched MAGA hat. Such stark visual allusions speak to the history of black America, before, during, and after the Vietnam War. Lee makes a point to reference Crispus Attucks, a black man and the first person to die during the Boston Massacre that ignited the American Revolution. He’s asking, if black people have been dying for the American republic since its inception, why must they continue to have to fight for respect and equality within that republic?
There’s a scene where Lee directly quotes John Hustons’ Treasure of the Sierra Madre, with which his film shares more than a few similarities. And even that line feels particularly loaded in this moment in time. The greed and gold fever that destroys Humphrey Bogart in that movie is something far more nuanced and sinister in this latest Spike Lee joint. And it’s harrowing, brutal and intense, but also moving. Indeed, Da 5 Bloods boasts a sincerity and emotionality I hadn’t expected, as it healthily shines a spotlight on themes of trauma, estrangement, brotherhood, mental illness, and guilt amidst it’s overarching statement concerning injustice. The performances are exemplary, especially from Lindo, Boseman, Peters, and Jonathan Majors as Pauls’ son, the cinematography is stupendous in its intricate details and epic breadth alike, and Terence Blanchards’ score is remarkably poignant.
Though perhaps the most remarkable thing about Da 5 Bloods remains its timing. Through its’ characters, themes, and even a glimpse into Black Lives Matter tinged with a cathartic optimism, this is one of those rare movies to come right when the world needs it most. When we’re living in a formative hour of reevaluation and change, where systemic racism is being widely confronted, and when more than ever we need that reassurance that “Five Bloods don’t die, they multiply.”
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