Da 5 Bloods

To celebrate Chadwick Boseman’s career, I watched his most recent film, Da 5 Bloods. When I read about how he died, and that he chose to keep acting during his fight with cancer, I felt ashamed that I only knew him from Black Panther. How can I cherish a person’s talent if I only experience a fraction of their work? I decided to change that and watch his other films, starting with this one. With Da 5 Bloods being a “Spike Lee Joint,” the filmmaking is bold, loud, and straight to the point. Spike Lee injects his voice in every scene, even when it gets in the way of the story and bloats the runtime.

It was accidentally poetic to start watching Chadwick Boseman’s career with this film. Not only is it possibly his last (or second to last), but the entire story revolves around his squad going back to Vietnam to honor his dying wishes. Boseman’s character, Stormin’ Norman, is more of a ghost and an idea than an actual person in the story. What sparse screen time he has, though, has definitely some of the best moments in the film. The story revolves around how his friends want to keep his dream alive, how, even though he died too soon, they could make sure he would not be forgotten. He may not be present in the film that much, but everything that happens is in memory of him. Sadly, I do not have any personal connection to Chadwick Boseman, even after his death, but I hope that this review inspires people to look at the late actor more than just another guy in the MCU.

What Spike Lee does well with this film is how it incorporates black history into a seemingly simple premise for a film. The action on screen is very basic and understandable, but what the characters say and feel when they are vulnerable brings out the richness of the writing and how Spike Lee sees culture in his art. The fictional characters reference real black heroes, and even have different points of view to discuss current social problems. The transition scenes between set pieces are fully utilized to this extent, showing the characters react to modern day Vietnam and shivering when they feel their past mistakes looming over them. It highlights the problems of soldiers not being able to return home, and uses that common narrative thread in a new light with a core cast of exclusively black actors.

Looking at the film by itself—ignoring the director and the actors that elevate its prestige—it falls short of what it tried to be. What started out strong slowly faded in the middle before being trampled by the ending. There were four well developed, unique characters that had one goal, and each of their own internal delusions that believably created conflict within the group. But suddenly, we are introduced to four more characters that are either abandoned to be brought up later or just tag along to pad the dialogue—not to mention those additional-character’s subplots with more characters that show up randomly at the exact time they are needed. The film is way too long, drawing out scenes with little development and shoddy introductions of third-act villains. The death scenes are supposed to emanate a poetic justice yet feel cheesy and even comical; the war sequences resemble 1970s propaganda but with black soldiers this time, yet the score drains it of any intensity or grit; and the “backstabbing” bad guys show up out of nowhere and do not actually hold a role in the development of the story or the characters; they only drive up to the scene because they have guns and this is supposed to be a war flick. By the end of the film, the main story is almost forgotten as the distractions gain more screen time. This happens just in time for that cliché “I-wrote-a-letter-to-you-before-I-died” speech for the resolution, but it is resolving only the subplot characters since the main story was executed in the jungle and left to die. It feels like the film needed to go in one direction, but got lost in the weeds trying to find its own special treasure.

Overall, it might not satisfy the expectations of a war film, but only because it attempts to highlight the social concerns with black veterans after they returned home. Instead of the jungle and guerilla warfare as the opposing force, ghosts of past mistakes, insanity, and the threat of one’s legacy are the true antagonists. If you want to promote black creators and what they have to say about history and filmmaking, or you just want to see a little spark of Chadwick Boseman to brighten your day, this film is easily available on Netflix. It being a Netflix Original allows you to watch it in intervals if it begins to drag. I, personally, do not think it is worth the 2 hours and 35 minutes, even with the bright moments being impactful and unique to any other Vietnam war film. It is an unconventional tale that should be made more often, but that does not excuse this film’s shortcomings in telling it.

The grand average score calculated from the 67 scenes:

7.13/10