Da 5 Bloods Review: What’s happening brother!
Starring: Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Johnny Trí Nguyễn, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Chadwick Boseman.
Directed by: Spike Lee
Spike Lee returns with yet another politically charged project after BlacKkKlansman(2018), with Da 5 Bloods, which tells the tale of four war veterans- GIs in the Vietnam War -Paul (Delroy Lindo), Otis (Clarke Peters), Eddie (Norm Lewis), Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), who dub themselves the “Bloods”. They reunite to embark on a quest to recover a treasure they lost from the past. The treasure is a cargo, a locker of gold bars intended as payment for the Lahu people for their help fighting the Viet Cong during the war. The “Bloods”, which included their squad leader , “Stormin Norman”(Chadwick Boseman), came across the cargo from a fallen CIA airplane and decided to bury it and come back later for it. However, in the ensuing Vietnamese counter-attack, Norman is killed and the “Bloods” could not locate the buried gold after a napalm strike obliterates all of the identifying landmarks. A recent landslide has uncovered the tail of the crashed plane leading the Bloods to dig up their past once again for their treasure and what’s left of their leader.
The narrative is an interweave of the present day quest, historical video snippets, and their time with Norman at the war zone. While this sounds ambitious, the results are not all that fruitful. Spike overemphasizes the message to the point its carrier falls under its weight. The problems start when there is a history lesson that invades every plot development. I found it interesting as it showed some real footage of the effects of the war, Martin Luther King Jr’s and Muhammad Ali’s speeches among others, which supports the narrative, and is occasionally funny (President ‘Fake Bone Spurs’). However I was unaware of what was in store. Soon the historical video snippets and photos take the driving wheel and the main plot just seems to exist solely to make an excuse to show these snippets. There is an intense scene where Paul’s son David has stepped on a landmine and his father approaches to tell him that he should jump as high as he can when he is pulled into safety with a rope that’s tied around him. The father then proceeds to give a lecture reminding him of where he went to college and Edwin Moses, a famous black athlete who is an alumni of the college, who won two Olympic gold medals and took only took a consistent 13 steps between each of the hurdles while his rivals often took 15 strides(…okay!). Sequences like these pave way for a lot of unintentional humour.
The political commentary too becomes overbearing. Literally every scene deals with the characters involved in conversations about the political situation of the country and racial politics, or they are just forced into fabricated situations just to accommodate Spike’s political commentary. There is a sequence where they are in a ferry ride, a chicken seller pulls up to their boat and relentlessly insists that Paul buy his chicken. This extends for several minutes and predictably ends in two of them scuffling and the seller accusing them of killing his parents during the war. Then a sequence of the gang having different opinions on the N-word, holding onto past grudges and brotherhood ensues as it should. Spike also has a discussion on Trump going on throughout — how Americans have supported him for his economic policies and his promise of a conservative world — which honestly feels overdone at this point. Another scene is when David has a conversation with some Finnish guy at a bar who makes fun of Americans for electing Trump. David then stands to “plead innocent of all charges, claims, accusations, allegations, associations connected to the Klansman in the Oval office….” on behalf of “all the black people in USA who are the only group who didn’t vote for that …” ! Of course he was drunk and meant it as a satire but the dramatic close up suggests Spike Lee meant otherwise. His attempt to see both sides to everything like the Trump situation and opioids is underwhelming. Then there is some in-your-face symbolism throughout to wrap it all up. All these exhausting exercises go on till the conclusion, although the main plot gains some control in the second half.
The technical side does provide a relief with good acting, cinematography and the score. The score which is mostly from Marvin Gaye’s album What’s going on fits perfectly and complements the narrative, especially the title track, which is no surprise as the album deals with the same themes as that of the movie. Spike’s use of switching aspect ratios is engaging. Out of the bunch, Paul is the most fleshed out and most significant character in the movie, as in it is through Paul that Spike shows the section of black people who have lost faith in the liberal movement. They see equality as a pipe dream and wants to succeed at least in their own lives. The rest of the characters will probably be met with apathy for the most part.
Da 5 Bloods is a discussion on racial inequality, family and greed for money. Spike tries to do too many things at once and fails to do justice to any of them, putting out a messy film in the process. Spike Lee fails to interweave history and political commentary with a plot that doesn’t stand on its own without it. He fails to subtly incorporate the message into the narrative and leaves it out bare for the audience to absorb which works in some scenes but mostly falters. The picture of the world he tries to paint not only doesn’t fit in the canvas of the plot, but undermines it in the process. Spike Lee has his heart in the right place but fails to translate his views into a feature film. A documentary would have been a better choice.
