New Release Review - Da 5 Bloods

Ah yes, another new release. I’ve been waiting patiently, and we finally got another Netflix movie I’m actually interested in seeing. Spike Lee’s next film after the excellent BlacKkKlansman, Da 5 Bloods follows a group of Black Vietnam veterans who return in the modern day to search for gold and the corpse of their platoon leader (Chadwick Boseman), and, as you’d expect, troubling events ensue.

Spike Lee is trying to do a lot with this film. It’s a 155-minute film, dealing with the themes of PTSD, greed, race, responsibility and pride, and like some of Lee’s other films, it ends with a very hammer-hitting point about the state of modern society. In BlacKkKlansman, that worked because it was deliberately very jarring, lulling us into a false sense of security before striking at us about modern racism. In Da 5 Bloods, that point is repeated multiple times throughout the film, in a way which at points characters break the fourth wall Ferris Bueller-style, and it can feel somewhat annoying. I didn’t always feel like I needed this comparison, or this new piece of information introduced, when I had a very compelling story in front of me that I could interpret said messages from without being told. At points it could be quite effective, but it didn’t always work for me.

Aside from that, I think this is a very well-made film on a directing and technical level. Probably my favourite part of this movie is the cinematography by Newton Thomas Sigel, who mixes in different aspect ratios and film stock whenever the movie switches time periods, with the result being a visual tribute to Vietnam news footage combined with the digital stock of modern day. This works very effectively, and the cinematography itself pops off the screen, using colour and stark contrast very strongly. The special effects, and especially the excellent sound design, have a very strong implementation, with the latter being very deserving of a Sound Mixing Oscar. However, the score for this movie, by Terence Blanchard, at times felt like it was from a completely different film, even though the compositions themselves are actually pretty good.

Delroy Lindo in this movie kills it in every scene, playing a PTSD-ridden and uncontrollably angry veteran who has a very poor relationship with his son, played by Jonathan Majors who is also very good. Clarke Peters is also excellent in this movie, as is Chadwick Boseman in his surprisingly short role, and former Spider-Man stuntman Johnny Trí Nguyễn stands out as well. Jean Reno shows up for only two scenes, but is clearly enjoying himself a lot as a French mobster helping these guys get the gold out of the country.

Nice job, guys.

But for characters, there is a weak link in the form of Paul Walter Hauser. Although Hauser is giving a good performance, his character just did nothing at all, not even being a significant presence or helping in the very well-done final battle scene, despite him being there and probably more useful than the other people on his side who were given guns. Just give his character’s metal detector to Jasper Pääkkönen’s Eurotrash minesweeper and you’ve changed nothing.

My biggest problem with the movie is its script and editing. As I said, it is a long 155-minute movie, and it probably shouldn’t have been. While Spike Lee is admittedly trying to do a lot, there are definite moments where you could shave off scenes, or shorten this, or cut the length of this shot, or logical things like poor Paul Walter. It’s like the director’s cut of an acclaimed movie about Vietnam veterans that for a re-release, Lee decided to add in a whole lot more that really wasn’t needed, as director’s cuts are wont to do. In addition to that, there are moments where there are real logic gaps in the events on screen (a character commits an incredible sacrifice and nobody even cares until much later), which could be to do with symbolism, but just don’t make sense from an internal standpoint.

Did we really need this dancing sequence?

Regardless, this is a strongly made and acted movie, with a few script problems keeping it from real greatness. I’m going to give it a 7.5/10.

If you’ve seen this movie, what do you think? Please leave your answers in the comments.