The country is facing racial tension, streets have burned and people are yelling that Black Lives Matter. This seems like perfect timing for a Spike Lee film.
His latest offering, the Netflix-released Da Five Bloods, speaks to issues of race, both at home and abroad, and is about as subtle to a sledgehammer to the head, but let's be honest: Nobody wants to be subtle when talking about race these days.
Trying to define the new film is tricky. It's part war movie, part heist story, part investigation of race, and all Spike. The first point of comparison that comes to mind is Dead Presidents, another movie dealing with Black Americans in Vietnam made by African-American directors — in this case The Hughes Brothers. The film used the war as a backdrop instead of going full-on Full Metal Jacket. Bloods is similar.
We meet four friends reuniting in Vietnam, all smiles and hugs. It's been a while since they've been here, and they hire a tour guide to help get them into the jungle to retrieve the remains of their squad leader, Stormin' Norman (Chadwick Boseman).
Of course, that's not the only reason to go into the jungle. When they were last there, they stumbled across some gold bars, planning to bring them back home to use for the Black Power movement, which was what Norman wanted.
But the friends are different now. Especially Paul (Delroy Lindo), who wears a Make America Great Again hat and agrees with some of the president's rhetoric about building a wall (like I said, sledgehammer). Delroy Lindo gives a hurricane of a performance, and the Academy needs to just give him his Oscar now.
Interestingly, as they go in and out of flashbacks, the four characters are played by the same actors the whole time. There’s no make-up, just the old ass versions of themselves fighting as they did 30 years ago. Maybe this is Spike eschewing Scorsese’s Irishman use of de-aging technology, and just saying f#!k it. At times, it becomes confusing, but the technique seems purposeful in the end.
The group of friends plan to leave, but Paul's adult son David (Jonathan Majors) shows up, fearing his father can't complete whatever secret mission brought him back to Vietnam. Majors offers another dynamite performance following his Oscar-deserving work in last year's The Last Black Man in San Francisco.
The film seems at first to be just a retrieval story — get the remains of a colleague and get the money — but things get a lot more complicated and a hell of a lot more violent, sometimes feeling more like Tarantino than Lee. Things get bloody when they find the booty and the remains, as they stumble on a landmine, which alerts the locals, and it’s then they find out they aren't the only ones looking for this gold.
Their desire for the money tests the friends’ allegiances, the bond between the father and son in the group, and the squad’s respect for the philosophies of their beloved former leader.
It’s hard not to leave the film dwelling on Lindo’s performance. His character has no problem turning on friends, tying up strangers and proving that war never ends. During a pivotal moment in the movie, Paul, toting a gun, turns to the terrified group and simply says, “Lemme tell y'all somethin'. I'm the motherf#!ka.” Yes, he is.
It’s the best performance Lee has directed since Denzel's portrayal of Malcolm X (coincidentally, Lindo was great in that movie, too).
The movie’s final act gives some of the characters a chance for redemption, but it's a bloody road to achieve it. Some find peace and some find closure. It also shows that even in an unjust war filled with violence and uncertainty, people can still forge a brotherhood.
Lee splices in moments of modern day protests and outrage at times during the film, hammering home that the director’s point was to prove that Black people are fighting an ongoing war in America. And just like Da Bloods, we can build bonds while battling unholy forces that never seem to abate.
I’m happy that Lee gave us a movie that is so necessary right now. But I’m heartbroken that we still need it.
