I Want Netflix's Money Back for Their Sake

Rating: 1/10 (3 July 2020)

I reactivated my IMDB account because I was so utterly disappointed with this movie.
I don't even know where to start, honestly. As an Black veteran, I was really looking forward to this movie, but had to end the movie after 1 hour! Spike Lee had no direction in this movie. He and the writers try to tackle *way* too many issues. There is the issue of PTSD in veterans; the issue of Vietnam veterans getting no recognition; the issue of racism in the Vietnam-era US military; the myriad of issues surrounding the civil rights movement in the US; the issue of MLK Jr.'s death; the issue President Trump; the issue of landmines left over in Vietnam; the issue of reconciliation with an enemy from 50 years prior; the issue of Black history being underrepresented; the issue of 'the ugly American' and I am sure a few more would have popped up if I continued the movie.
The issues Spike Lee should have focused on should have been: getting unknown and better-known actors to understand the objective of their character; ironing out the story line, GETTING YOUNGER ACTORS TO PLAY THE CHARACTERS when they went to their flashback scenes--if it is supposed to make an allusion to the idea that Norman will always stay young because he is dead, so be it, but at least make the characters look a little younger (Spike Lee used the same actors for the characters in their flashback scenes as when they are in old age as though they were some weird Benjamin Button/Twilight characters). Oh, and we get it Spike Lee, you don't like Donald Trump--P.S. a lot of people don't--but having a scene where a character literally calls Trump a "Klansman" while standing up at a table full of people in a bar while holding up his right hand is not even a little bit clever. Spike Lee may as well have broken the 4th wall, inserted a clip of Spike Lee saying "I hate Donald Trump," to the audience and it would have been less cringe-worthy than that scene.
The acting is god-awful. Actors are stepping on each others' lines, constantly betraying what their character's objective and emotion is, and very rarely act with any real deliberate movements. Delroy Lindo had played very good roles previously, but Spike Lee clearly did his career no favors with this "joint". Delroy Lindo's acting during a scene when he is supposed to be having a PTSD-induced panic attack left me very confused about what was actually going on. Spike Lee clearly did not consult any military or psychology professionals while making this movie. I am not sure if you can even blame Delroy Lindo since it is the director's (Spike Lee) responsibility and duty to say 'hey we missed the mark on this take, let's do it again but we we need to do...instead.' or even 'hey, maybe this PTSD scene in the floating market will be too difficult and expensive to pull off, let's rewrite the scene to when we are on land and where it is cheaper.'
The only redeeming quality of the movie was the few little snippets of information about black history. I have seen better movies made by college film undergrads than this movie. If anything this movie was rushed to screen during the most recent protests as Netflix's sad attempt to virtue signal and gain more subscribers. Ultimately, this movie will go down as Spike Lee's worst movie. How he went from BlackKklansman to this is beyond me.