Da 5 Bloods (2020) Review

A good movie could’ve been more fabulous with some editing…

Synopsis: Da 5 Bloods (2020) is a Story of Four African-American Military veterans who fought together in the Vietnam war. After 50 Years, they return to Vietnam to recover their Squads leader’s body and gold, which they buried during the war.

Pros:

Da 5 Bloods shows the history of the Vietnam war through the eyes of four black people who fought for the U.S.A. which is uncongenial to them. Coincidentally, this movie so much relevant to what’s happening now. Nearly after 5 decades, there is so much that didn’t change for black people in America. Da 5 blood also has decent characters with different ideologies and how they changed since the war. As like Every Spike Lee movie, Da 5 Bloods, Daringly talks about various social issues, political conversation.

Spike Lee, the choice to show some real footage like the massacre of innocent Vietnamese people, the oppression of black people, Martin Luther’s speech, and many relating to the issues, the scenes are powerful. The changing aspect ratio for different acts is cleaver. The movie is 2hr 30min, with Spike Lee’s unique, captivating direction, it doesn’t seem long to me. The film changes pace in the second hour, where the characters start the journey into the forest to find treasure, where it gets intense, emotional, violet, and spike lee brilliantly captured it all. The references to Apocalypse Now (1979) Movie and Marvin Gaye tracks are quite enjoyable. The notable performance by Delroy Lindo is observing. He’s struggling with PTSD, and emotional performance is phenomenal.

Cons:

First, I love social messages in movies, but forcefully inserting many, without actually serving any purpose to the main story, seemed cluttered and messy, sometimes confusing; what’s the movie about. The same actors played in the present play their younger self 50 years ago; without any visual effects, prosthetics; why??

The background score doesn’t sink with scenes. It felt like the orchestra team was given the music without knowing the tone, emotion of the scene. And the worst part, for some scenes, B.G.M dominates the dialogue.

Conclusion: It’s certainly not the best spike lee movie, but it’s still worth watching. The movie could be so much fantastic with some editing, anyway. DA 5 Blood daring, relevant, and commercially entertaining with amazing direction. My Rating 7/10.

Director: Spike Lee
Cast: Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Chadwick Aaron Boseman
Genre: Adventure, Drama, War