'Da 5 Bloods' Review: Spike Lee's film starts as adventure-heist, ends with lesson on cost of war, reparations
Spoilers for ‘Da 5 Bloods’
However much you think you can expect the unexpected while watching Spike Lee’s Netflix film ‘Da 5 Bloods’, you leave it surprised. At the outset, it seems like a whacky adventure/heist film -- four African-American Vietnam War veterans return to the country, more than 40 years after the war is over. They return with two objectives. One, finding the body of their old platoon leader, Stormin’ Norman (Chadwick Boseman), who was killed in action during the war. And two, finding the gold they had hidden in the jungles.
As is the case with Spike Lee films, it is difficult to imagine them without a conversation around race and inequality. But ‘Da 5 Bloods’ outdoes this. The film explores myriad ideas: be it Donald Trump, or war, or the condemnation of war by the leaders of the civil rights movement, or the reparations African-Americans are due, or the cost of war on both sides, or racism within the army, Lee leaves little untouched.
The cost of trying to explore so many ideas, however, is the film’s substantial length. At more than two-and-a-half hours long, the film sometimes rambles on. But even within the confines of so many difficult conversations, the film does not bore. And to that only Lee cannot be credited. It’s also the cast.
There’s Delroy Lindo as Paul, a Trump-supporting war black man whose life has been haunted not just by the specter of PTSD, but also by his own inherent biases and toxicity. There’s Jonathan Majors as David, Paul’s son who never found love in his post-war father. There’s Clarke Peters as Otis, the sensible one among them all. There’s Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Melvin, the cheeky, selfish one, whose final act is one of selflessness. It’s also one he said he would never do: jumping on a grenade to save everyone else.
There’s Norm Lewis as Eddie, the cheerful happy one, but the only one who understood that their treasure hunt had a bigger goal; the only one who sought the buried gold not for personal wealth, but for reparations to black Americans. It’s only fitting that in the end, his share goes to the Black Lives Matter movement. And there is also Jean Reno as Desroche, the French villain in this tale. Reno as a villain always delivers and this is no exception.
One of the more powerful moments of the film was a flashback into the war. The five soldiers were setting up camp in the jungles when the radio announced through a Vietnamese station that Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. As anger took the party, all except Norman wanted to bathe in the blood of white soldiers. All of them were prepared to go kill their fellow troopers.
But Norman stops them. He explains to them that they would find their vengeance in a different way. They would find their vengeance by uplifting their community with the gold they had found. He advocated that Dr. King would not want them to kill. There is a lot to be said both for and against the advocacy of non-violence in the face of abject cruelty. But in that one scene, it works well.
Spike Lee’s ‘Da 5 Bloods’ is quite an experience. It takes you on a long but educational journey. And it leaves you thinking. Thinking about the portrayal of war. Thinking about the portrayal of racial equality. And thinking about reparations.
‘Da 5 Bloods’ is available for viewing on Netflix.