PTSD from the POV of Scarred Black Lives

Rating: 8/10 (23 June 2020)

PTSD comes in all wavering factors, whether from psychological abuse, or childhood trauma, or especially fighting in a deadly war between countries. In the case of the latest Spike Lee joint, Da 5 Bloods, this flick really delves into how the effects of the Vietnam War can screw up the lives of individuals, specifically African Americans. The fact that this film was released when a jingoistic arrogant prejudiced white man is still in America's office pretending to run things adds into the hypocrisies commonplace in the land of the free. Just when we think a war is over, it comes back in ways we would never expect.
The story centers around a group of aging Vietnam War veterans who return to said country in search of both their late squad leader and a treasure they buried while serving there. From the getco, the movie is driven just as much by its characters as its plot, maybe a little more so, mainly due to their individual personalities. Although these veterans served in the army, they all came out differently, such as Otis (Clarke Peters) having a more lenient soft spot for the country personally, Eddie (Norm Lewis) having achieved success after his time, or Melvin (Isiah Whitlock jr.) being the sardonic jokester of the group. However, the biggest standout would have to be the aggressively ill-tempered Paul, elevated through an all-star performance by Delroy Lindo. In addition to having a rocky relationship with his son David (Jonathan Majors), who tags along on the crew's journey, the amount of anger seethed inside him from serving such an unnecessary war practically poisons him into becoming his own villain. You know a cast is intriguing when you debate whether to root for these elders or not.
But what would be a solid search movie without a good amount of foes to add into the tension? In the case of Da 5 Bloods, for every trustworthy component like the group's guide Vinh (Johnny Tri Nguyen), and Otis' former flame Tien (Le Y Lan), there are the more shady opponents attempting to be in the way of them. For instance, the shady French businessman Desroche (Jean Reno), plays up the heist well in manipulating the men into their journey under false pretenses of payback (th French were also fairly ruthless in Vietnam mind you). Along the way, the group meet up with foreign experts like French woman Hedy Bouvier (Mélanie Thierry), Simon (Paul Walter Hauser) and Seppo (Jasper Pääkkönen), who all seem superfluous until the film's latter half raises up the violence and stakes to frightening results. All throughout the feature, these side characters play key factors in either playing along the main group's goals or trying to do anyway with them, emphasizing who to trust and who not to trust in an otherwise divisive traumatized pack of veterans.
Throughout the feature, Lee cleverly intertwines stock footage to emphasize the tangents in the main story and the media brought during the war's period. Whether it'd be used to parallel the speeches of famous icons like Martin Luther King or Muhammad Ali between the poor Vietnamese citizens vs the poor Blacks, or to add in to how little has changed since these disgusting war years, this footage can often come at the expense of making viewers, based on their race and class, think long and hard about the effects that this period had on America. Another fascinating filmmaking choice is shooting the flashback sequences of the group and the aforementioned Norman on 16mm and without making the actors look young, possibly indicating that the Bloods never truly left Vietnam (as Vinh pointed out) due to how much it came back to haunt them all. If there is any notable flaw in the movie, it's that perhaps the 2.5 hour runtime can be rather tiresome depending on the viewer's interest, and the few moments of humor don't always mesh well with the overall serious tone.
It's not often when a war film really goes into the harsh realities of American citizens who were affected by its country through a pointless battle worse than others. Da 5 Bloods stands as a bold and brutally honest feature about America's perception of Blackness that seems to have lingered on since 1619, "whether in heroic situations or human ones," (Odie Henderson). Whether you're a Spike Lee fan, a war-movie buff or are interested in viewing pro-black media during these crazy times, this is right up your alley. After all, what does it really mean to be a war hero at the end of the day?