DA 5 BLOODS There could hardly be a more signi.cant moment for a new Spike Lee joint. As the killing of George Floyd leaves America in turmoil, Lee’s Netflix release Da 5 Bloods looks back at the Vietnam war and asks what it meant for black America.
Da 5 Bloods: (l-r) Isiah Whitlock Jr, Norm Lewis, Clarke Peters, Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors
Movies about the war have tended to cast African-American soldiers as onlookers to the tragedies of white heroes, whether it’s Laurence Fishburne’s character in Apocalypse Now! or Forest Whitaker in Platoon. Da 5 Bloods corrects that tendency, and offers a critical commentary on it, in its story of four black veterans who return to Vietnam today on a personal mission - locate a cache of gold bullion and bring back the body of Stormin’ Norman (Chadwick Boseman), their heroic and idealistic platoon leader. One man in particular, Paul (Delroy Lindo), is haunted by visions of the past and of Norman. He’s the most complex character - embittered, damaged and politically conflicted, heading out on his mission, and towards breakdown, in a MAGA cap.