"Da 5 Bloods" is Spike Lee's Magnum Opus

Rating: 10/10 (21 June 2020)

"Da 5 Bloods" is an action drama highlighting a fateful reunion with a quartet of Vietnam War veterans in modern-day Vietnam. The cast is led by Delroy Lindo, Chadwick Boseman, Jonathan Majors, Isiah Whitlock, Clarke Peters and Norm Lewis.
This film explores the broken promises for Black American soldiers after their war experiences. "Miracle at St. Anna" was one of Lee's first to tackle a story that mostly takes place well outside the United States. Given his initial pedigree as a "New York City Stories" auteur, this is an obvious change of pace, but it is well worth more than one viewing.
Four of the veterans reunite in Ho Chi Minh City to attempt to find the remains of fallen soldier/field leader "Stormin Norman" (Boseman). What neither the US or Vietnam State Departments know is that the four men also plan to find a hidden trunk full of gold that was lost in a CIA plane crash in the Vietnamese Jungle back during their original tour of duty.
All four surviving men have been scarred by the war to varying degrees. The most deeply disturbed is Paul (Lindo), who in the latest manifestation of his bitterness and discontent has become an unabashed supporter of President Donald Trump: this makes him the object of caustic ribbing by his buddies, but Paul is resolute: He feels absolutely cheated of his due respect and reward for his bodily and mental sacrifice: both as a soldier and as a black citizen enduring Civil Rights-era turmoil and social tumult.
To varying degrees, all of Paul's friends agree: Eddie, Melvin and Otis. Paul's adult son David is a surprise, and initially unwelcome tag-along: he wants to finally find a way to bond with his long-estranged father, but Paul isn't about to make it easy.
The explorations of these men provide an intriguing alternative point of view for 2020 audiences: Vietnam-based dramas have been produced for decades, but scarcely few have done a deep dive into the point of view of what Black soldiers went through, much less how they fared in the years after the war.
The cinematography by Newton Thomas Sigel is top-notch. Lee's direction is assured; the visual atmosphere is alternately cool, warm or hot and intense in other parts. There are four credited writers, including original writers Paul De Meo and Danny Bilson.
Some of the scenes linger longer than they should. Some of the tribute/easter-egg dialogue will be obvious to people who are familiar with certain war films or heist films. Delroy Lindo should get major acting award nominations for his performance. His Paul is a firestorm of macho belligerence and deep emotional woundedness all wound-up in a man who feels abandoned and guilty. Clark Peters should get supporting actor nominations. Maybe the conceit of using the same actors to play their younger selves is off-putting for some, but this viewer managed to get over it.
Given the already 2-hour-plus running time of the film, I don't know that there was time to go deeper into the philosophy of how people of color can be used as tools of white-driven colonialism and hyper-capitalism against other people of color and indigenous communities, the influence of Black-derived pop culture in Asian countries (Motown played at nightclubs, or even modern K-Pop music) or the contemporary contexts of Black-Asian relations in the United States. Paul's confrontation with a fellow trying to sell him a chicken updates the spat between Bill Nunn's Radio Raheem and the Korean-born shopkeepers in "Do the Right Thing". Paul's occasional rants about "illegals" and the rest of the crew's attempts to calm him down is about as far as it goes.
Whatever the technical faults of a director like Spike Lee, he has earned his right for due consideration in taking on a conceptually risky project. "Da 5 Bloods" delivers the gold, but at a cost.