Movie review: DA 5 BLOODS

Father, father
We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today, oh oh oh

 

-Marvin Gaye, WHAT'S GOING ON, 1971

 

 

Spike Lee wants to educate us.

And we need to be educated. And by ''we'', I speak as a privileged white man.

After his stunning return to form with the superb BLACKKKLANSMAN in 2018, DA 5 BLOODS confirms more than ever that Lee still has a lot to say, especially about racial tensions and of course, the undeniable fact that Black Lives Matter, but also about the immorality of war, and the deep wounds left by the Vietnam War.

The plot by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo (who are remembered by comic book fans for the 1990 FLASH TV series and THE ROCKETEER) was originally written for Oliver Stone in 2013 as THE LAST TOUR, but was rewritten by Spike Lee and Kevin Willmot (Lee's BLACKKKLANSMAN and CHI-RAQ), which sees a group of four African American veterans going back to Vietnam in the hopes of finding the remains of their fallen commander, and put their hands on a long lost treasure, is more or less inconsequential. Lee goes through the motions of the story quickly, because he knows full well that this is not where the attention of the viewer should reside, but more on the heavily racially-charged subtext. 

Director Spike Lee, with his cast for Da 5 Bloods. Isiah Whitlock Jr., Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters and Norm Lewis.

To that end, he resorts to many Brechtian detachment techniques to remind the viewer he is watching a film; Having the older actors playing their younger selves, without any tricks to make them look younger, in flashbacks sharing the screen with Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther) as the only young man of the ''five Bloods''. Repeating quick moments in the editing, like in a handshake or a hug, causing a slightly jarring feeling,. Talking straight to the camera, like in that showstopping diatribe by Delroy Lindo. Making less-than subtle references to other classic Vietnam movies, or using a booming heroic score by longtime collaborator Terence Blanchard in action scenes only serves to remind you that you are watching a movie. Or stopping the action momentarily to show photos or clips of things the characters are talking about. The opening montage of historical footage also sets from the get go the didactic nature of the film.

Once again, the story isn't the point, but what we can learn from the story. Black soldiers fighting an unjust war for a country that didn't offer them the civil liberties they were fighting for. Black Soldiers Lives Matters too. 

In an Indiewire interview, Spike Lee spells it out clearly : ''They put their lives on the line, for the red, white, and blue, while also knowing that their brothers and sisters were fighting another war in the United States of America.”

One of the most intriguing aspect of the film is having one of the veterans being a Trump supporter, even wearing the ''Make America Great Again'' hat (which will be worn later by a French war profiteer played by Jean Reno, showing that greed isn't a purely American construct), a decision made to create tension, according to Spike Lee, but also makes one wonder why a black man would vote against his best interest. Something a greater number of white men has done also over the years.

That character, played with PTSD-drenched intensity by Delroy Lindo, is a mixture of pride, racism, love, hatred and confusion that should be rewarded by a Gold Statuette at the next Academy Award ceremony, it it does take place. Lindo gives a layered, bravura performance that manages to make you care for a Trumper. No small feat.

Delroy Lindo and Jonathan Majors as father in son, in a tense moment from DA 5 BLOODS.

The film is a perfect companion to Dee Rees' outstanding MUDBOUND as a demonstration of the experience of Black Americans in war, and how America failed time and time again at giving them the proper thanks for their services. After discovering a crate of gold in a downed airplane, the commander of the five Bloods, played by Boseman, defiantly decides to appropriate the US minted gold. “We been dying for this country from the very get, hoping one day they’d give us our rightful place. All they give us was a foot up our black asses. Well fuck that. I say the USA owe us. We built this bitch!” 

Chadwick Boseman as the charismatic Commander Stormin' Norman.

Vital and urgent, I could say the film is opening at a pivotal moment in History, as crowds of people are taking to the streets in marches to protest Police Brutality that is overwhelmingly aimed at black people, but I would be stating not only the obvious, but also ignoring the fact that this is nothing new. The problem has existed for a long time. A wind of change is blowing however, and a faint scent of hope is in the air.

“The thing that gives me hope is to see all across America, my white brothers and sisters who are out in the streets, joining their black and brown brothers and sisters. And in many cases, these demonstrations are in places where there are no black and brown people. Look at Salt Lake City, Utah. Des Moines, Iowa, and all those that around. That is giving me hope.” Spike lee said in a recent interview.

And actor Clarke Peters added in a different interview : ''We'll take the hope that we're feeling now, and let it fuel ourselves into the future''

I'll top it off with these words from James Balwin in a 1962 New Yorker opinion piece :

''If we—and now I mean the relatively conscious whites and the relatively conscious blacks, who must, like lovers, insist on, or create, the consciousness of the others—do not falter in our duty now, we may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world. ''