Da 5 Bloods
Pupule rating: 3.7 (out of 4)
Netflix
This will be short. Most always, Spike Lee doesn't let his characters stray. Each represents a code, good or bad, and plays it through to the end. It was true of the first "Joint" I saw, "Do The Right Thing," and it remains true in "Da 5 Bloods."
There is one exception here, and Delroy Lindo is exquisitely cast to play that out. The setting in Vietnam gives us the royal treatment. The almost serene, jovial vibe to the reunion of five Vietnam War veterans sets in. It placates. Or me, at least. Then, you know what hits the fan, and the second half of D5B turns into a bizarre test of human nature where greed, paranoia and the lingering ghosts of the past mesh into some of Lee's best work.
He made it a point to have the voice of Marvin Gaye, sometimes acapella, do the talking. His storytelling process has evolved over the decades, but his use of voice and music, like the jazz riffs of his early films, remains. It can be haunting. It can feel like an off-beat measure or two. But it is Spike.
Be prepared for gore and blood. Sporadic, but still not for little kids. Lee's use of past and present media, the quick cuts of character reactions, all blueprint for him. The history he teaches through his craft never fails. The African-American chapter of the war American couldn't win is massive, if not in actual history books, then in Prof. Lee's encyclopedia. Six-hundred thousand black soldiers sent to Southeast Asia. When Muhammed Ali opens the film with his epic lyric about one man of color sent to kill another man of color, one who had never called him a racist epithet, the tone is set. The story flies by.
Lindo's range and intensity, saving his Bloods in heroic fashion, yet unleashing his manic aggression moments later, provides the insanity and humanity that gives this a pulse. Worthy of a nomination, for sure.
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