DA 5 BLOODS
Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norman Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr, Melanie Thierry, Paul Walter Hauser, Jasper Paakkonen, Johnny Nguyen, Jean Reno, Chadwick Boseman.
Directed by Spike Lee.
Spike Lee has been a vigorous and outspoken film director since the middle of the 1980s. In 1989 his classic drama of Brooklyn, Do The Right Thing was released. During the 1990s he made a biography of Malcolm X with Denzel Washington. While he has made several fiction thrillers, he has continually returned in feature films and documentaries to race issues in the United States. He won an Oscar for Best Screenplay for his picture of the infiltration of the Ku Klux Klan by black policeman, BlacKkKlansmen?.
Da 5 Bloods has been a significant project for Lee for several years, to dramatise and explore the presence of African-American? soldiers in the Vietnam war. This is an ambitious film, running two and a half hours, set in the present with veterans returning to Vietnam to find the body of their fellow-Blood, Stormin’ Norman (Chadwick Boseman) as well as some gold, recovered from a plane and buried in Vietnam. In this context, there are many flashbacks to the Bloods, their camaraderie, seeing them in action, tension in various battles, encounters with the Vietcong.
And, for a wider circulation, and immediate circulation (especially in the times of covid-19), Da 5 Bloods was released on Netflix.
Immediate reaction by reviewers and, certainly, by a great number of bloggers, was unexpectedly negative. Some praise for spike Lee and his work, for good intentions, but not for the film itself.
It is not an easy film to watch. We immediately empathise with the ageing men returning to Vietnam, with all their memories, the reaction by the American public when the veterans returned from the war, their subsequent lives, traumas and achievements. The 5 certainly bond well together but each of them has quite a number of problems, most especially Paul (Delroy Lindo in an intense, at times a seemingly over-intense performance). Also joining the group is his alienated son, David (Jonathan Majors), meaning that there is the presence of the next generation, who did not experience the war, who do not have that intense attachment to the war experience.
There are scenes as they visit Saigon, somewhat overwhelmed, making comparisons with the past, David becoming involved with a French woman, one of the men revisiting his partner in the past and discovering his daughter. The men also hire a Vietnamese guide (with his own memories of his father in the war) so that they can find the location of the action, of Norman’s death, of the burial place of the gold. They also do negotiations with a shady French businessman, Jean Reno. This will lead to violence, to attacking locals, with their own memories of the war and conflict with the Americans.
The group also encounter the French woman who has a company for disposing of landmines – which also have some crucial dramatic moments for the Bloods.
While the film is dramatic, at many times it is highly melodramatic, especially as Paul manifests his traumas, his range of moods, his intensity for the gold (and one wonders whether Spike Lee has memories of the intensity of the gold hunt and discovery in John Huston’s classic 1948 The Treasure of the Sierra Madre).
One of the suggestions for appreciating Da 5 Bloods is to try to see the film from Spike Lee’s point of view rather than assuming what the audience might have wanted. Spike Lee is caught in his dilemma of wanting to do justice to the African Americans in war as well as critiquing the American government’s involvement in the war and the many disastrous consequences. Da 5 Bloods is certainly a film of conflict and contradictions, not intending for the audience to finish watching 2 ½ hours and feeling that they have completed a dramatic experience in understanding all the issues. The memories and the conflicts inevitably continue.
1. The work of Spike Lee? His perspectives? African- American? American racism? The presence of African- American soldiers in the Vietnam war? The aftermath?
2. The 21st century retrospective on the war, after 50 years? The contemporary settings? Vietnam in progress after the war? The American defeat? Vietnam’s place in the contemporary world? Unified? Yet the memories of collaboration in South Vietnam? The aggression of the Vietcong? The economic progress of the country, the development of Saigon into Ho Chi Minh City?
3. The title, the five men and their collaboration and camaraderie during the war? The death of Stormin’ Norman? Their admiration of him? The flashbacks, the war sequences, the dangers, the operations, military skills, the Vietcong attacks? Planes and helicopters? The gold on the plane? The attack, Norman’s death? The burying of the gold?
4. The decision to return to Vietnam, the four reuniting? The characters, their stories after the war, succeeding, failing, PTSD, financial difficulties, relationships? Paul and his son? Their motivation for returning to Vietnam, to meet one another again, to celebrate, to remember, to recover the gold, Norman’s body?
5. The visual technique for the present, widescreen, bright colour? For the flashbacks, different ratio, faded colour, footage of the times?
6. Paul is leader, strong personality, intentions, relationship with the other men, tensions, happy? His bringing his son? The difficulties with his son? David and his character, response to his father? Present on the expedition? In Saigon, at the bar, encountering the French girl, the relationship? His father’s resentment?
7. The other members of the group, their personalities, age? Financial success and failure? Race issues? The prostitute from the past, the soldier meeting her, discovering his daughter? The impact on him?
8. The device of having the aged actors playing their role of 50 years earlier, the effect on the audience? The continuity?
9. The contact with the Frenchman, shady deals, trusting him, his return, his Vietnamese allies, intentions with the gold? The confrontations, the violence, shootings? The effect on the Vietnamese men, their wanting vengeance? Shadowing Paul? The final brutality? With the other men and the French team? In the old temple?
10. The men hiring the Vietnamese guide, his parents’ background, sympathetic to the Americans, his leaving them, returning with their return? Sharing and the dangers, the pursuit of the gold?
11. Meeting with the mines team, the French girl and her leadership, the other members of the group? Encountering the soldiers, the hostilities, tied up, interrogated? Their work with the mines? David and his standing on the mine, his father’s technique the timing, lifting his foot, catching and saving him?
12. The continued dangers, one of the men standing on the mine and his death? The shootouts of the other death?
13. Paul is increasing mental deterioration and its effect? With his son? Focused on the gold? Obsession with Norman and his death?
14. The expedition for finding the gold, the clue is, the two rain, the mines, discovering the gold, digging it up, the frenzy and the effect of the gold? Paul and his obsession?
15. Meeting with the Frenchman, the Vietnamese, the violence, the men dying, David and his perseverance, Paul going off alone, on the river, the pursuit, the memories of Norman, his death?
16. How well did the film bring the characters to life, the strength of their experiences in the past, there are American loyalty, yet criticisms of America, their skills in war, their loyalty to Norman, the irony of the discovery how Norman was killed, the surreal aspects of Paul, being haunted, being reassured? The irony of deaths in 21st-century Vietnam?
