Friday, May 21, 2021

Da 5 Bloods

Da 5 Bloods is an award-winning 2020 war movie, a tragedy that tells the story of a group of men who go back to the site of their last mission in Vietnam. Spike Lee directs. It was the last Chadwick Boseman film released before his death from cancer at the age of 43 in August of that year. I watched it on Netflix.

trailer:


The New Yorker closes a glowing review with this:
The transformative, prophetic power of “Da 5 Bloods” is rooted in its overarching sense of a never-ending war—not the Vietnam War, specifically, but the daily war at home that’s waged against black Americans, who are forced to fight for survival, equality, and justice.
Roger Ebert's site opens a 4-star review with this:
Spike Lee’s excellent “Da 5 Bloods” opens with Muhammad Ali and closes with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., two legends who are inextricably tied to the Civil Rights movement and Black pride. Lee uses them to highlight another commonality: their strenuous opposition to the Vietnam War. For Ali, the objection cost him several productive years of his career and his heavyweight title; for Dr. King, this new focus was quite possibly the final straw that led to his assassination. The first words we hear are Ali’s famous explanation of why he refused to enlist. The last words we hear are from a speech King gave on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his murder, where he quotes poet Langston Hughes’ “Let America Be America Again.”

Between these two bookends is a heist movie of sorts, albeit one with far more on its mind than its plot details would suggest.
Rotten Tomatoes has a critics consensus score of 92%.

14 comments:

  1. ...a bit too heavy for me.

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  2. Will have to check this out

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  3. I remember when I interviewed Vietnam survivors a couple of years ago, the black army private said he was angry all the time. It took him 30 years to get rid of the anger. He said he stayed high because it eased the anger and pain. He was forced to join the army, was forced to do grunt work, was always in the line of fire, and came home to people spitting on him. I would LOVE to see this film, but I don't have Netflix.

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    1. Netflix is the only place I've seen it offered.

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  4. As well done as this movie is, it was hard for me to watch at times. Too many memories. I lost friends and family members came back deeply damaged. However, with that said I like the how this movie was portrayed.

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  5. I am not usually fond of war movies, but this was really good, but sad. Have a great weekend, Valerie

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    1. I'm with you; war movies aren't my "thing". This is absolutely not typical, though.

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  6. This is one I'd really like to see, though yes, I think it would be a hard watch.

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    1. I'm glad I saw it. It's not something I'd ever have chosen without having it specifically recommended for me.

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  7. I'm sure this would be a good film to watch but perhaps not an easy one to watch.

    All the best Jan

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    1. You hit the nail on the head. I'm glad I saw it, but it wasn't easy to watch.

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