Such a fantastic film that has so much passion. 2020 wasn’t the best year for movies, but I’m glad that A Spike Lee Joint was released during that year, especially with all of the things going on from COVID to the George Floyd protests. Da 5 Bloods is a very powerful film and I can just tell that Spike put his absolute heart and soul into making it. The way he’s able to parallel civil rights with the Vietnam War is exceptional since when you really get down to it, both are very similar and have to do with one another. For starters, black men fought for a country that had only just given them their civil rights in 1965. They were fighting for “freedom” yet there were still a lot of people in America who thought that the black men fighting for “freedom” in Vietnam didn’t even deserve their freedom. Then of course there’s the fact that the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War aren’t over, they continue to be a part of our lives nowadays. Lee underscores this by displaying a Black Lives Matter meeting and a press conference for an organization that is devoted to clearing out Vietnamese land of bombs and mines, as well as helping those injured by those bombs and mines. Just because the combat of the Vietnam War is over and the Civil Rights Act was signed, that doesn’t mean that the effects of the war and of Jim Crow Laws and redlining and other racist policies are gone. People still have to fight for justice. What I find most interesting about this movie is Delroy Lindo’s character Paul. First of all, Delroy Lindo delivers such a good performance, he is such an amazing actor. Paul is a very complex and very broken individual. He clearly suffers from PTSD and I feel like he does not enjoy being back in Vietnam. He definitely feels regret about what happened to Norman, played brilliantly by Chadwick Boseman, and that also plays into his overall state of mind. His beliefs contradict each other, especially since he voted for Trump and is seen wearing a MAGA hat. Paul felt betrayed by America after Vietnam, as did many veterans, and so perhaps when he heard Trump promising to make America prosperous, he believed it. But at the same time this contradicts his actions since it’s quite prominently displayed in the film that Paul doesn’t trust authority figures and that he has a hard time trusting anybody, such as Hedy, Simon, and Seppo. Maybe that is why he diverts from the group later on in the film. Also, another thing that intrigues me about this is how once the bloods find the gold, instead of becoming consumed with greed, they decide to use it for good. There are times when they seem a little stingy of the gold, but they offer equal shares to the tour guide and to Hedy and Simon and once they get out of the situation at the end that takes place at the ruins of a temple, they donate money to good causes, causes that I mentioned earlier in this very review. That gold was originally owned by America, an imperialist nation with blood on its hands. But now, it’s in the hands of the oppressed, the people who got hurt most by the war and by people who continue to be impacted by not only the effects of the war but by the American government itself. It’s very powerful. Spike is just such a good storyteller and is able to make this a dramatic, emotional, funny, intense, and painfully truthful film. Also, I failed to mention that Chadwick Boseman’s character is such a great portrayal of a loved one who was lost. Paul and the other bloods all love Norman and his death is what brought them together again decades after the war. The scene between Boseman and Lindo in which Norman forgives Paul is heart wrenchingly beautiful. When a loved one such as Norman dies, people like Paul don’t usually get closure or a chance at saying goodbye, but since Paul is such a broken man, Norman comes back to allow Paul to feel a little less pain and to feel a little less tortured. At the end of the day, Norman loved Paul and Paul loved Norman, the bloods loved one another. What makes everything all the more sad is that Boseman died the year this movie released. It makes his scenes all the more eerie and devastating. Rest in power Chadwick Boseman. Bravo to him, Delroy Lindo, Spike Lee, and the rest of the talented cast and crew of Da 5 Bloods.

Such a fantastic film that has so much passion. 2020 wasn’t the best year for movies, but I’m glad that A Spike Lee Joint was released during that year, especially with all of the things going on from COVID to the George Floyd protests. Da 5 Bloods is a very powerful film and I can just tell that Spike put his absolute heart and soul into making it. The way he’s able to parallel civil rights with the Vietnam War is exceptional since when you really get down to it, both are very similar and have to do with one another. For starters, black men fought for a country that had only just given them their civil rights in 1965. They were fighting for “freedom” yet there were still a lot of people in America who thought that the black men fighting for “freedom” in Vietnam didn’t even deserve their freedom. Then of course there’s the fact that the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War aren’t over, they continue to be a part of our lives nowadays. Lee underscores this by displaying a Black Lives Matter meeting and a press conference for an organization that is devoted to clearing out Vietnamese land of bombs and mines, as well as helping those injured by those bombs and mines. Just because the combat of the Vietnam War is over and the Civil Rights Act was signed, that doesn’t mean that the effects of the war and of Jim Crow Laws and redlining and other racist policies are gone. People still have to fight for justice. What I find most interesting about this movie is Delroy Lindo’s character Paul. First of all, Delroy Lindo delivers such a good performance, he is such an amazing actor. Paul is a very complex and very broken individual. He clearly suffers from PTSD and I feel like he does not enjoy being back in Vietnam. He definitely feels regret about what happened to Norman, played brilliantly by Chadwick Boseman, and that also plays into his overall state of mind. His beliefs contradict each other, especially since he voted for Trump and is seen wearing a MAGA hat. Paul felt betrayed by America after Vietnam, as did many veterans, and so perhaps when he heard Trump promising to make America prosperous, he believed it. But at the same time this contradicts his actions since it’s quite prominently displayed in the film that Paul doesn’t trust authority figures and that he has a hard time trusting anybody, such as Hedy, Simon, and Seppo. Maybe that is why he diverts from the group later on in the film. Also, another thing that intrigues me about this is how once the bloods find the gold, instead of becoming consumed with greed, they decide to use it for good. There are times when they seem a little stingy of the gold, but they offer equal shares to the tour guide and to Hedy and Simon and once they get out of the situation at the end that takes place at the ruins of a temple, they donate money to good causes, causes that I mentioned earlier in this very review. That gold was originally owned by America, an imperialist nation with blood on its hands. But now, it’s in the hands of the oppressed, the people who got hurt most by the war and by people who continue to be impacted by not only the effects of the war but by the American government itself. It’s very powerful. Spike is just such a good storyteller and is able to make this a dramatic, emotional, funny, intense, and painfully truthful film. Also, I failed to mention that Chadwick Boseman’s character is such a great portrayal of a loved one who was lost. Paul and the other bloods all love Norman and his death is what brought them together again decades after the war. The scene between Boseman and Lindo in which Norman forgives Paul is heart wrenchingly beautiful. When a loved one such as Norman dies, people like Paul don’t usually get closure or a chance at saying goodbye, but since Paul is such a broken man, Norman comes back to allow Paul to feel a little less pain and to feel a little less tortured. At the end of the day, Norman loved Paul and Paul loved Norman, the bloods loved one another. What makes everything all the more sad is that Boseman died the year this movie released. It makes his scenes all the more eerie and devastating. Rest in power Chadwick Boseman. Bravo to him, Delroy Lindo, Spike Lee, and the rest of the talented cast and crew of Da 5 Bloods.

Da 5 Bloods, Spike Lee's 2022 joint, was made as a response to the 2020 race-war following the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd at the hands of the police...what?...what do you mean, from 2020...?

Barring a bit of weird editing and the odd feeling choice of having all the actors portraying younger versions of themselves during the Vietnam War - which does little stylistically but rather makes you wonder if Netflix might just have been too racist to spare the change they spent on The Irishman - this is the movie we needed at this time.

Amazing performances thoughout, a stunning cinematography and local as well as great writing in certain parts make you look past some of the contrivances and a bit of a feeling of "Was all this really necessary".

The characters, play on aspect ratios and Tarantino/adventure movie influence make it fun, while at the same time being extremely hard to swallow at times.

Da 5 Bloods, Spike Lee's 2022 joint, was made as a response to the 2020 race-war following the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd at the hands of the police...what?...what do you mean, from 2020...?

Barring a bit of weird editing and the odd feeling choice of having all the actors portraying younger versions of themselves during the Vietnam War - which does little stylistically but rather makes you wonder if Netflix might just have been too racist to spare the change they spent on The Irishman - this is the movie we needed at this time.

Amazing performances thoughout, a stunning cinematography and local as well as great writing in certain parts make you look past some of the contrivances and a bit of a feeling of "Was all this really necessary".

The characters, play on aspect ratios and Tarantino/adventure movie influence make it fun, while at the same time being extremely hard to swallow at times.

First of all shout out to Spike Lee for having one of his characters refer to Donald Trump as "The Klansman in the Oval Office" because that is an amazing line of dialogue right there.
Da 5 Bloods, man this is a deeply layered film that I think I'd have to see a second time to really be able to peel all of those layers back but wow, it is raw and it is powerful stuff. Like with BlacKkKlansman Spike Lee really doesn't shy away from speaking the truth even at the risk of coming across heavy handed, but sometimes that kind of approach is exactly what you need to be able to drum the message into yourself.

Delroy Lindo's character Paul is a deeply flawed protagonist but that's what makes him so compelling, honestly I think in terms of what I've actually seen this year his performance is the stand out. Throughout the film we see how the war has changed him and the PTSD that comes with that. Like Apocalypse Now (which there are direct references to) we get to experience the horrors of the Vietnam war through his eyes but that isn't all, we see a different side to the war and that is how it affected black people which bleeds into the fact that even today they are still fighting a war. The tagline for the film is War never ends and of course take a look at the world today, there is no denying that.
When we actually do see flashbacks to the war Spike Lee does something very clever in the way that the aspect ratio changes to 4:3 and the war sequences almost feel like a 70s Movie and instead of deaging ala The Irishman or casting younger actors we see them as their older selves, as if the characters are looking back at their past in the present day. The plot revolves heavily around the fallen leader of the titular 5 Bloods Stormin' Norman played brilliantly by Chadwick Boseman. Of course only being in flashback form his role is limited but his presence is all over the film, there is a particularly great scene that stuck with me where the squadron finds out about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and Boseman gets a speech about how what he was fighting for was peace and not the retaliation that the rest of them want to inflict amidst their anger.

It's a hefty film at 2 hours 35 minutes and at points all of the different plot lines and flashbacks can come across as slightly messy but in the end Lee does a good job at balancing them to make a coherent story. I personally do think that BlacKkKlansman is the better film but the ending of this film I'd say is still just as powerful and affecting. From the beginning we are shown the injustice that still goes on through the eyes of some of the most powerful people in the black community and it wraps up exactly in that way as well. I really loved it and I'd highly recommend it to anyone as it's streaming on Netflix so if you have an account there's no excuse, even if you don't at least use the free trial because it has some very important things to say at a time that is obviously very heated, of course what it's saying is and always will be important especially as it was coming out and was made regardless of the recent tragedies but what I mean is that it has come at a particularly significant time in history. A new Spike Lee joint is out and we should be celebrating that. In a year of delayed films and disappointments this film shines as bright as the buried gold Da bloods are searching for.

First of all shout out to Spike Lee for having one of his characters refer to Donald Trump as "The Klansman in the Oval Office" because that is an amazing line of dialogue right there.
Da 5 Bloods, man this is a deeply layered film that I think I'd have to see a second time to really be able to peel all of those layers back but wow, it is raw and it is powerful stuff. Like with BlacKkKlansman Spike Lee really doesn't shy away from speaking the truth even at the risk of coming across heavy handed, but sometimes that kind of approach is exactly what you need to be able to drum the message into yourself.

Delroy Lindo's character Paul is a deeply flawed protagonist but that's what makes him so compelling, honestly I think in terms of what I've actually seen this year his performance is the stand out. Throughout the film we see how the war has changed him and the PTSD that comes with that. Like Apocalypse Now (which there are direct references to) we get to experience the horrors of the Vietnam war through his eyes but that isn't all, we see a different side to the war and that is how it affected black people which bleeds into the fact that even today they are still fighting a war. The tagline for the film is War never ends and of course take a look at the world today, there is no denying that.
When we actually do see flashbacks to the war Spike Lee does something very clever in the way that the aspect ratio changes to 4:3 and the war sequences almost feel like a 70s Movie and instead of deaging ala The Irishman or casting younger actors we see them as their older selves, as if the characters are looking back at their past in the present day. The plot revolves heavily around the fallen leader of the titular 5 Bloods Stormin' Norman played brilliantly by Chadwick Boseman. Of course only being in flashback form his role is limited but his presence is all over the film, there is a particularly great scene that stuck with me where the squadron finds out about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and Boseman gets a speech about how what he was fighting for was peace and not the retaliation that the rest of them want to inflict amidst their anger.

It's a hefty film at 2 hours 35 minutes and at points all of the different plot lines and flashbacks can come across as slightly messy but in the end Lee does a good job at balancing them to make a coherent story. I personally do think that BlacKkKlansman is the better film but the ending of this film I'd say is still just as powerful and affecting. From the beginning we are shown the injustice that still goes on through the eyes of some of the most powerful people in the black community and it wraps up exactly in that way as well. I really loved it and I'd highly recommend it to anyone as it's streaming on Netflix so if you have an account there's no excuse, even if you don't at least use the free trial because it has some very important things to say at a time that is obviously very heated, of course what it's saying is and always will be important especially as it was coming out and was made regardless of the recent tragedies but what I mean is that it has come at a particularly significant time in history. A new Spike Lee joint is out and we should be celebrating that. In a year of delayed films and disappointments this film shines as bright as the buried gold Da bloods are searching for.

I watched “Do the Right Thing” maybe around a month or two ago and I’d mentioned in my review how in a much older interview, Spike Lee had mentioned how at the time his ideologies were more in line with those like Malcolm X, who had a “by all means” type of ideology. However, after watching this, while I’m not sure if he’d directly said which one he prefers now or if he’s just made a comment overall on this, my takeaway is how in this society, we need a synthesis of both ideologies.

I watched “Do the Right Thing” maybe around a month or two ago and I’d mentioned in my review how in a much older interview, Spike Lee had mentioned how at the time his ideologies were more in line with those like Malcolm X, who had a “by all means” type of ideology. However, after watching this, while I’m not sure if he’d directly said which one he prefers now or if he’s just made a comment overall on this, my takeaway is how in this society, we need a synthesis of both ideologies.

Holy peak

Holy peak