Are we entering a stage were platforms like Netflix will become the place for prominent directors to release their work? OK, we were probably already there, give Martin Scorsese and the Coen Brothers both released movies there for wider consumption. Regardless, we can now add Spike Lee to that list of big name directors putting new movies onto the streaming service. True, Da 5 Bloods was intended for a limited theatrical release, but the pandemic put a stop to that like it did so many other fun things.
But this is a weird time, so I get to see all kinds of things intended for theatrical release from the comfort of my own home instead. Let’s hope that this one is at least better than Artemis Fowl.
Four Vietnam vets are back in Vietnam. The men, all black, are ostensibly there to find the remains of a comrade who died there. In reality, while they are doing that, they are also there to find a large collection of gold bars they found and hid in the jungle when they were young. As it is, there’s a bit more going on for most of them. Paul (Delroy Lindo), decked out in a MAGA cap for most of the movie, is obsessed with their dead comrade Stormin’ Norman (Chadwick Boseman in the flashbacks) and seems to want the gold the most. He’s every bit the image of the damaged Vietnam vet. Otis (Clarke Peters) is looking more to reconnect with a girlfriend he left behind than anything else, and the gold arguable means the least to him. Eddie (Norm Lewis) wants to use the gold to enrich the African American community back home. And Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), um, you know, he didn’t seem to get as much screen time as the others to explain his motivations, but he does have a bit of a problem with substance abuse from the looks of things. And yes, he does draw out a certain swearword like Whitlock used to do all the time on The Wire. And, along for the ride unexpectedly, is Paul’s son David (Jonathan Majors), mostly there to keep an eye on his unstable father.
Now, clearly, this isn’t going to be as simple as all that, and this is a Spike Lee Joint, so you know it’s going to be a bit political. I’m not overly familiat with a lot of Lee’s work. I’ve seen this, BlacKkKlansman, and Malcolm X. And if Lee is getting political, it won’t be subtle. Granted, many times that’s more than appropriate. But this time around, much of that political focus seems to be a bit all over the place. This particular movie is not only about the experience of black Americans, but also the effects the war had on Vietnam, especially the proliferation of unexploded land mines, and Lindo’s Paul, the Trump voter, is of course portrayed most as the ugly American, shouting verbal abuse a French woman just there to dispose of land mines, flashing a gun, and hurting for something that his friends believe never really existed–to the movie’s credit, the other vets don’t do much more than give Paul some gentle ribbing in one scene when they learn who Paul voted for–compared with the more mild-mannered Otis, a man who doesn’t mind so much giving away gold to get out of the mess the foursome (plus David) soon find themselves in, much of it coming out as Paul’s fault for the man’s belligerent attitude towards everyone.
In fact, the movie, while perhaps visually evoking something like Apocalypse Now visually, seems to be more of a remake of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, complete with one minor character saying a variation of the most famous line from the Bogart classic in a scene that plays out almost the same way. But this one is also about African American pride, and that’s the thing Stormin’ Norman did for the other Bloods (as they call themselves), giving them pride and knowledge and teaching them about black history, as one says, before there really was such a thing. Boseman doesn’t have many scenes in the movie, but he brings his usual fire and intensity to the role. It’s easy to see why the charismatic Norman had such an effect on the other four who, in a nice touch, are played by the same actors in flashback without any attempt to make them look at all younger.
Now, as much as I liked this movie, I will be the first to admit it is a bit on the long side, running over two and a half hours, and much of that seems to come from Lee being a little self-indulgent. There are moments in this movie where everything goes a bit over-the-top. Like I said in the beginning, Lee isn’t a subtle filmmaker when he has a point to make, and he isn’t here. There may be a bit too much plot to this movie, and it might have worked better had Lee cut a little of it out. Still, Lee knows what he’s doing behind the camera, and anyone tuning in to see his work should know what they’re getting by now.
Grade: B+
0 Comments