I discovered Spike Lee through 2018's 'BlacKkKlansman' which I loved. 'Do The Right Thing' and 'Malcolm X' are also career highlights of his. 'Inside Man' is also a great film and so I was excited for 'Da 5 Bloods'. With the drought of cinema due to COVID and the current political climate I thought this film could not have landed at a better time. Sadly I think the creative team, particularly on a script writing level, should have waited longer. I was very disappointed by the film.
I have since let my thoughts settle on the film since the initial Netflix release. The current discourse around the omission of 'Da 5 Bloods' from the Golden Globes nominations prompted me to revisit the film and my feelings have not changed unfortunately.
On a technical level, the film is wildly unruly which some have praised as inventive or anarchic even but I personally found to be disengaging. The film is 2 hours and 36 minutes long but unfortunately feels far longer. There is nothing wrong with a film being long if it has the content to justify the runtime but 'Da 5 Bloods' unfortunately doesn't. Equally the plot amounts to very little and the characters all seem to change their motivations and personalities from scene to scene in order to pad out the runtime of the film, which adds to the disengagement.
On an aesthetic level, many of the most memorable moments are clunky homages to much better films such as 'Apocalypse Now' and 'Treasure of the Sierra Madre' which just leave you wondering why you aren't watching these films instead. Don't get me wrong, homage is no bad thing, and Lee himself has done it successfully before, Radio Raheem's knuckle dusters in 'Do The Right Thing' for example. However, in a film this I'll disciplined they only serve to exacerbate the problems that the film has.
On a positive note, the cast themselves are not terrible, as some have said, rather they do the best they can with a bad script. Much praise has been given to Delroy Lindo for his work in the film, and I would agree that his performance in the film showcases his acting chops in as much that his character is perhaps the worst written in terms of inconsistencies and Lindo manages to elevate the character to a level that the script has not earned. And so to a degree Lindo deserves praise and certainly he deserves more casting opportunities because he is clearly a great actor. Chadwick Boseman is definitely the stand out in the cast and his charisma oozes off of the screen, his Stormin' Norman is easily the films most believable character and I would attribute this entirely to Boseman. Unfortunately he isn't in the film nearly enough to redeem it however but the film is infinitely better whenever he is on screen.
The film also looks great, Newton Thomas Sigel's cinematography is really good. The 16mm film flashbacks are particularly great. The soundtrack is also great, and the nod to The Temptations in the character names is a nice touch though the characters don't all necessarily resemble their namesakes in their behaviour which leaves it as a slightly confusing or empty choice to an extent.
The film also doesn't de-age the actors for the flashbacks which is a bold choice and definitely could have worked as a distinct visualisation of the psyche of the characters if the film wasn't so confused otherwise. But the film is so confused which unfortunately makes this choice become a distraction more than anything else.
Then there is the political aspect. 'Do The Right Thing' in particular but also 'BlackKklansman' to an extent showcase that Spike Lee can make extremely political films with nuance. Unfortunately 'Da 5 Bloods' suffers from a severe nuance deficiency.
Telling a US Vietnam soldier story from the perspective of Black Veterans is a smart choice and is a unique perspective that hasn't been focused on as much before in such a singular way that I can recall. This ought to be the great innovation of the film and is an incredibly interesting idea and absolutely a worthwhile and fresh endeavour for a film. However, the film misses the mark quite considerably.
The level of knowledge on the Vietnam war evidenced in the film seems to be that which a year 9 history student could have attained by half paying attention in class and then watching 'Apocalypse Now' . This substandard understanding is then uncomfortably warped to then fit Lee's own ideological issues about present day America. This is a real shame, because, outside of works on Muhammad Ali, I don't think there is much mainstream coverage of the black experience in Vietnam but here it is very clumsily handled.
The worst of this is in the portrayal of Vietnam and the Vietnamese people themselves for the most part. As awful as the experience in Vietnam must have been for US soldiers of all races, though there is a unique aspect to the black experience that could have been explored better here, the war did happen in Vietnam. Vietnamese people had to deal with an invasion from a global superpower and suffer endless bombing campaigns and atrocities such as the My Lai massacre at the hands of the US and the various invaders before them. The film makes gestures to such events through archival footage which is far more impactful than any of the fictional scenes in the movie and rightfully so but it leaves you wondering why such harrowing footage is being intercut with Da 5 Bloods (technically Da 4 Bloods) and their farcical treasure hunt. Juxtaposing the iconic and haunting image of Phan Thi Kim Phuc for example with Delroy Lindo and his mates playing Dora the Explorer comes across as just a bit distasteful. Though I don't believe this is the intent by any means but unfortunately it is the end product.
Equally the Vietnamese characters in the film could generously be described as 2 dimensional at best. The treatment of the Vietnamese in 'Da 5 Bloods' is eerily reminiscent of the portrayal of Native Americans in some of the worst westerns of the 50s. Which, would be reprehensible enough, but in a film which places so much emphasis on racial injustice it only highlights the appalling depiction of the Vietnamese characters in the film and undermines the cumbersome delivery of a relatively straightforward political message. Lê Y Lan does nothing more than be a love interest for Clark Peters' Otis while Johnny Trí Nguyen plays the stereotypical tour guide role and they are perhaps the best served by the film. Practically every other Vietnamese character in the film is used as either canon fodder for the Westerners to play target practice with or they fit other quaint stereotypes such as Chu, the chicken seller.
This combined with a bizarre third act which seems to have been lifted straight from a Michael Bay film all seem to reinforce very uncomfortable Neo-Colonialist narratives which all seems completely at odds with the political argument that Spike Lee seems to be trying to make with the film. There is genuinely a line in the first act which pokes fun at the Rambo movies for being crass and nationalistic which on first viewing made me chuckle slightly but seems completely ludicrous when the film just completely devolves into the exact same infantile claptrap by the third act except it is entirely Po faced and without any sense of irony in doing this. 'First Blood' is a far more nuanced look at the Vietnam war and ptsd than 'Da 5 Bloods' could ever dream of being and it is this complete lack of self awareness that is the biggest flaw of the film.
Don't get me wrong, the film has very noble aspirations but it fails to meet them in quite spectacular fashion, contradicting itself at virtually every turn on a filmmaking level but also more disturbingly on a political and historical level. The worst of it all is that Spike Lee has proven before that he can pull this off and I am sure he will do it again but this really is not the one.
I have since let my thoughts settle on the film since the initial Netflix release. The current discourse around the omission of 'Da 5 Bloods' from the Golden Globes nominations prompted me to revisit the film and my feelings have not changed unfortunately.
On a technical level, the film is wildly unruly which some have praised as inventive or anarchic even but I personally found to be disengaging. The film is 2 hours and 36 minutes long but unfortunately feels far longer. There is nothing wrong with a film being long if it has the content to justify the runtime but 'Da 5 Bloods' unfortunately doesn't. Equally the plot amounts to very little and the characters all seem to change their motivations and personalities from scene to scene in order to pad out the runtime of the film, which adds to the disengagement.
On an aesthetic level, many of the most memorable moments are clunky homages to much better films such as 'Apocalypse Now' and 'Treasure of the Sierra Madre' which just leave you wondering why you aren't watching these films instead. Don't get me wrong, homage is no bad thing, and Lee himself has done it successfully before, Radio Raheem's knuckle dusters in 'Do The Right Thing' for example. However, in a film this I'll disciplined they only serve to exacerbate the problems that the film has.
On a positive note, the cast themselves are not terrible, as some have said, rather they do the best they can with a bad script. Much praise has been given to Delroy Lindo for his work in the film, and I would agree that his performance in the film showcases his acting chops in as much that his character is perhaps the worst written in terms of inconsistencies and Lindo manages to elevate the character to a level that the script has not earned. And so to a degree Lindo deserves praise and certainly he deserves more casting opportunities because he is clearly a great actor. Chadwick Boseman is definitely the stand out in the cast and his charisma oozes off of the screen, his Stormin' Norman is easily the films most believable character and I would attribute this entirely to Boseman. Unfortunately he isn't in the film nearly enough to redeem it however but the film is infinitely better whenever he is on screen.
The film also looks great, Newton Thomas Sigel's cinematography is really good. The 16mm film flashbacks are particularly great. The soundtrack is also great, and the nod to The Temptations in the character names is a nice touch though the characters don't all necessarily resemble their namesakes in their behaviour which leaves it as a slightly confusing or empty choice to an extent.
The film also doesn't de-age the actors for the flashbacks which is a bold choice and definitely could have worked as a distinct visualisation of the psyche of the characters if the film wasn't so confused otherwise. But the film is so confused which unfortunately makes this choice become a distraction more than anything else.
Then there is the political aspect. 'Do The Right Thing' in particular but also 'BlackKklansman' to an extent showcase that Spike Lee can make extremely political films with nuance. Unfortunately 'Da 5 Bloods' suffers from a severe nuance deficiency.
Telling a US Vietnam soldier story from the perspective of Black Veterans is a smart choice and is a unique perspective that hasn't been focused on as much before in such a singular way that I can recall. This ought to be the great innovation of the film and is an incredibly interesting idea and absolutely a worthwhile and fresh endeavour for a film. However, the film misses the mark quite considerably.
The level of knowledge on the Vietnam war evidenced in the film seems to be that which a year 9 history student could have attained by half paying attention in class and then watching 'Apocalypse Now' . This substandard understanding is then uncomfortably warped to then fit Lee's own ideological issues about present day America. This is a real shame, because, outside of works on Muhammad Ali, I don't think there is much mainstream coverage of the black experience in Vietnam but here it is very clumsily handled.
The worst of this is in the portrayal of Vietnam and the Vietnamese people themselves for the most part. As awful as the experience in Vietnam must have been for US soldiers of all races, though there is a unique aspect to the black experience that could have been explored better here, the war did happen in Vietnam. Vietnamese people had to deal with an invasion from a global superpower and suffer endless bombing campaigns and atrocities such as the My Lai massacre at the hands of the US and the various invaders before them. The film makes gestures to such events through archival footage which is far more impactful than any of the fictional scenes in the movie and rightfully so but it leaves you wondering why such harrowing footage is being intercut with Da 5 Bloods (technically Da 4 Bloods) and their farcical treasure hunt. Juxtaposing the iconic and haunting image of Phan Thi Kim Phuc for example with Delroy Lindo and his mates playing Dora the Explorer comes across as just a bit distasteful. Though I don't believe this is the intent by any means but unfortunately it is the end product.
Equally the Vietnamese characters in the film could generously be described as 2 dimensional at best. The treatment of the Vietnamese in 'Da 5 Bloods' is eerily reminiscent of the portrayal of Native Americans in some of the worst westerns of the 50s. Which, would be reprehensible enough, but in a film which places so much emphasis on racial injustice it only highlights the appalling depiction of the Vietnamese characters in the film and undermines the cumbersome delivery of a relatively straightforward political message. Lê Y Lan does nothing more than be a love interest for Clark Peters' Otis while Johnny Trí Nguyen plays the stereotypical tour guide role and they are perhaps the best served by the film. Practically every other Vietnamese character in the film is used as either canon fodder for the Westerners to play target practice with or they fit other quaint stereotypes such as Chu, the chicken seller.
This combined with a bizarre third act which seems to have been lifted straight from a Michael Bay film all seem to reinforce very uncomfortable Neo-Colonialist narratives which all seems completely at odds with the political argument that Spike Lee seems to be trying to make with the film. There is genuinely a line in the first act which pokes fun at the Rambo movies for being crass and nationalistic which on first viewing made me chuckle slightly but seems completely ludicrous when the film just completely devolves into the exact same infantile claptrap by the third act except it is entirely Po faced and without any sense of irony in doing this. 'First Blood' is a far more nuanced look at the Vietnam war and ptsd than 'Da 5 Bloods' could ever dream of being and it is this complete lack of self awareness that is the biggest flaw of the film.
Don't get me wrong, the film has very noble aspirations but it fails to meet them in quite spectacular fashion, contradicting itself at virtually every turn on a filmmaking level but also more disturbingly on a political and historical level. The worst of it all is that Spike Lee has proven before that he can pull this off and I am sure he will do it again but this really is not the one.