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.
