“After you’ve been in a war, you understand it really never ends. Whether it’s in your mind or in reality, they’re just degrees.”
The ghosts of the past often stay with us. Try as we may, running from our pasts is usually impossible if we haven’t confronted the mistakes that torment us. This truth applies not only to our personal experiences, but those of the societies that we inhabit. And often times, those glossed over sins of our culture and our personal failings intersect, creating a toxic stew that can be hard to overcome.
In the latest film from legendary director Spike Lee, Da 5 Bloods documents a return to Vietnam by four black veteran soldiers, Paul (Delroy Lindo), Otis (Clarke Peters), Eddie (Norm Lewis), and Melvin (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.). The quartet are ostensibly returning to the country to locate and return the remains of their Squad Leader Stormin’ Norman (Chadwick Boseman) who was killed in combat, but the second clandestine reason for their return is the retrieval of a buried treasure. Eventually joined by Paul’s concerned son David (Jonathan Majors), the veterans are forced to traverse through the old vestiges of war and their own demons.
Da 5 Bloods touches on a multitude of issues from racism, to the experiences of soldiers at home and abroad, to globalization. But at the center of it all is how the past haunts our todays and tomorrows. In the macro, Da 5 Bloods provides commentary on how this applies to the treatment of African Americans throughout the history of the United States. The film begins with a bookend of archival footage of civil rights protests and struggles alongside the horrors of the Vietnam War, setting the context for both the film and the larger theme at hand. This perpetual unfulfilled promise of freedom and justice for blacks in America has immensely shaped their worldview and outlook, as we see with the bloods, especially Paul. Always waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the double cross where promises are broken and what you thought would be yours is snatched away from you.
What this haunting specter of the past means for the exploration of the characters and their stories, is how their time in Vietnam has shaped them as men and how they continue to carry that with them even 40 plus years later. From the time the men first arrive in Vietnam, those horrors of war are always in the background lurking as we see during their night out with an Apocalypse Now movie poster behind a DJ booth and the figure of a bomb against a wall in a restaurant. Part of the impetus for their return to southeast Asia is the retrieval of the remains of their fallen leader Norman who acts as the sort of conscience of the bloods. Norman’s philosophy and character guide the men on right and wrong decades after his death and Paul’s drift away from what Norman stood causes the fallen squad leader to become a sort of ghost, haunting the veteran with shame and guilt. Through Paul’s story arc, we see the weight that both guilt and the horrors of war bear on the human soul and how such trauma manifests into self-destructiveness. People who are unable to let go of past mistakes, grow, and forgive themselves often manifest this self-loathing through debilitating behaviors. Coming to grips with previous bad acts and reaching the point of self-forgiveness requires self-compassion and considering whether you are over-estimating your own culpability. Da 5 Bloods documents this journey toward healing quite effectively, in no small part due to the actors involved.
The ensemble cast in the film is absolutely loaded with the immense talent present almost too numerous to list in totality. In no scene is the strength of the ensemble cast more evident than the powerful interaction the 5 bloods have after Hanoi Hannah’s announcement of Dr. King’s death. In addition to the 5 bloods and David, the likes of Jean Reno and Paul Walter Houser round out a star studded cast comprised of veteran actors and rising stars. The talk coming out the film is sure to be the underrated actor Delroy Lindo and rightfully so. Lindo has announced his entry into awards season consideration loudly and authoritatively with a mesmerizing performance that mixes the corrupting influence of greed on human behavior, post-traumatic stress and survivor’s guilt, and a fear of death into one combustible mix. Paul calls back to legendary characters in film such as John McTeague, Fred Dobbs, and Daniel Plainview whose lust for treasure turned them against allies and loved ones alike, ultimately leading to their own demise. While a more subtle and subdued performance, Clarke Peters is just as skillful in the film, providing a steady contrast to Lindo’s bombast but just as much emotional heft. His story arc with his long ago Vietnamese love Tiên Luu (Y. Lan) touches on the issue of Vietnamese Amerasians and provides an emotional moment during the film’s closing.
We are treated to some truly inspired cinematography from director of photography Newton Thomas Sigel. Alongside Lee, he’s able to inject the comfort of familiar Spike Lee shots such as his now signature quick cut change of perspective during certain character interactions in movement where we see a hug from different angles in quick succession. A boat trip down the river surrounded by the emerald forests as our group heads toward their golden treasure while Ride of the Valkyries blares is a clear and welcome homage to Apocalypse Now. In addition to this visual callback, Sigel uses constant changes in the film’s aspect ratio to coincide with changes in the time periods and locations depicted onscreen. In flashbacks to the Vietnam War, the aspect ratio is shot in an almost 4:3 ratio, when the bloods are shown in modern Vietnam, a more traditional widescreen ratio around 16:9 is used and when they arrive in the jungle to search for their treasure, we are treated to a fullscreen 1.33:1 ratio. During the wartime flashbacks, it appears as if the camera even switches from digital photography to 70mm film. The variations and creativity give the already visually appealing film and artistic heft that elevates it even more. Indeed, Da 5 Bloods utilizes its visuals for storytelling throughout, most notably through Paul’s Make America Great Again hat which serves as a symbol of his descent into madness and greed as it goes from vibrantly red to dirty and grimy as their journey goes on and he loses touch with reality. Terrance Blanchard teams with Lee once more to provide a beautifully elegant score that ramps up the bombast appropriately during the action scenes. His track “MLK Assassinated” is a masterwork that perfectly accompanies perhaps the best scene in the film.
Da 5 Bloods follows in the footsteps of Erich Von Stroheim’s partially lost masterpiece Greed and the 1948 classic The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (the film even directly references Sierra Madre’s iconic “I don’t have to show you any stinking badges!” line in its dialogue) as a modern entry into film’s examination of human greed. The film does meander a bit in the third act, even though it also features a monologue that may have cinched an Oscar nomination for Delroy Lindo. The thematic depth presented in the film touching upon multiple issues that remain topical and are perfectly in tune with our current moment in this tumultuous summer of 2020 are the latest evidence of the genius of Spike Lee as a griot for the black experience in America. Recent years have marked a sort of renaissance for the formerly divisive filmmaker with a growing appreciation for his talents and filmography having taken root as his status as an elder statesman has grown. With this latest effort, Lee makes it clear that his best years are nowhere near behind him.
Image: Netflix
