A Spike Lee Vietnam Joint

Rating: 9/10 (12 June 2020)

A fantastic Spike Lee joint and his ideal view on the Vietnam war and its aftermath in some aspects. The film is in its essence a typical Spike Lee feature with many weird characters, unexpected story developments and all of that stands for something, some message he wants to provide, sometimes it is conventionally done sometimes really out of the box. This film has it all. It is still one of Lee's more conventional films but if you expect a straight forward Vietnam war drama you are in the wrong seat. This is not your Oliver Stone kind of "anti war drama". I loved how Lee created the characters as most of them stand for something that is not going too well in our world these days, and others stand for something more positive. Acting wise it was good. Delroy Lindo is great in the most central role of the film. And so is Clark Peters who is definitely one of the stand outs and the character you can root most for. A very important supporting role is filled by Chadwick Boseman who perfectly fits into the environment of a Spike Lee film and I hope they will collaborate more often in the future. Also Jean Reno has his moments, even if his character is rather unlikeable. The technical aspects of the film are more great, fantastic cinematography, wonderful editing and awesome score.
The creative decision to use the same actors in the flashbacks as in present is ambitious and something you have to get used to but in the end it makes sense, and works, even without digital de-aging.
A film that couldn't be more relevant for these days and a film I expect to go places.