Da 5 Bloods

By: Robert Warren

Da 5 Bloods, directed by Spike Lee, is a gun popping war drama where four Vietnam vets return to claim a treasure that they hid decades ago. In a back-and-forth style we see reflections of time in Vietnam, speeches by people such as Nixon, Johnson, Malcom X, Muhammad Ali and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and a stellar performance by actor Delroy Lindo who plays Paul in this bullet shooting film. As 2020 is a time of racial inequality, police brutality and political injustice, Da 5 Bloods is a perfect film to watch as it reflects on the unification of brothers and finding harmony from fragility through archival footage that makes this film worth a watch.

In Da 5 Bloods four African American Vietnam vets reunite on a quest to find the remains of a friend from Vietnam who they call “Stormin Normin” (Chadwick Boseman) with granted permissions from the United States government. What the government doesn’t know; however, is that they are on an additional quest – a hunt for gold they hid during the war. In a time where bullets are just inches away from you through many hours of the day, the blood brothers felt they did so much for their country that the gold, (which they found themselves) was owed to them. So, they hid it and are now on a journey to retrieve it several years later.

It is quite an adventure for the four men who come to meet with their tour guide Vihn (Johnny Nygun) and raise their glasses to their new quest of returning to Vietnam. About to head out on this secret adventure is David (Jonathan Majors) who sees his dad Paul (Delroy Lindo) packing. He knows exactly where his dad is going, to find that gold, and talks his way into joining the four men in the hunt. In a desperation “please let me come with you style,” he is accepted and then they are to find the remains of fifth blood of the war, Normin, and the buried gold.

Paul, Otis (Clarke Peters) Eddie (Norm Lewis) Melvin (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.) and David enter the jungle after a helicopter crash to find a secret. It seems Otis has a gun given to him by Tiên (Y. Lan) creating drama and suspicion amongst the men of their motives. They go further into the jungle, entering a minefield. Eddie steps on one of the mines and the other men have to watch their feet carefully in this volatile environment. Upon finding the gold gunmen begin to shoot. During a warzone intensified shootout, the gunmen runoff. Paul has a vision of Norman and the plot wraps up with some serious surprises. It’s quite a provoking plot leaving your mind boggled and stewing in what just happened right before you.

Now when we talk about the top notch acting the biggest star is Delroy Lindo as Paul. He really begins to shine as he plays a rough around the edges character. Delivering Paul as this normal guy at first, which we already connected to through that packing scene, we find out that little things can trigger his PTSD. As the men ride a boat to start their journey several smaller boats ride beside trying to sell items to them. One man aggressively attempts to sell chicken to Paul. Paul blows up and then the four men have to pull him back. Sadly, he starts flashing back to war memories. The way Lindo plays Paul is phenomenal. He makes him out to be together (at first anyways) and a little distant from the other four brothers. He’s got a stern voice and when he gets triggered by PTSD, he becomes another person, raging in fury and pushing himself towards the very thing that triggers him. He then cools himself down and tries to relax and apologizes. This is what Lindo does well; he handles the grand quick shifts in emotion that happen at times that surprise the audience. Lindo plays Paul on a bubble wrap of emotion, where he’s walking until he steps on what makes Paul pop and quickly releases that air in a shot of fury. Lindo is phenomenal.

Next on the list of phenomenal actors in this movie is Clarke Peters playing Otis. He isn’t like Paul who will make a direct confrontational address to the camera about his struggles in times of fragility. Otis is a fellow Vietnam vet that is more about caring in deliverance of concord and the one that really helps initiate that coalescence amongst the brothers of war. You can tell when Peters plays Otis, he can really get into that missed emotion of not seeing someone for a long time as he plays a scene in which he reunites with his Vietnamese girlfriend Tiên, and finds out the shocking news, that he is a father. Peters shows us the caring side of Otis through this scene and really helps us connect to Otis’ emotions. Otis is also a great representation of coalescence in the brothers as he often initiates a fist for a unifying fist bump between the five of them which brings them together during times of conflict.

The next star of this film, I would argue, isn’t even one of the core group. It’s the one that tags along, unexpectedly at first, with his father. It’s Jonathan Majors as David. The reason I like Majors performance so well is the bit of melodrama he adds to this film. While we are guided through the main and simple storyline of a hunt for a body and gold, David adds another element to this piece. Through Majors we get a taste of the father-son relationship of David and Paul. We get a look into the argumentative and bitterness between the two. In this film Majors plays David in a way that we really see him grow as the story progresses. We see Major take his character and play him as a needy and desperate son and has him grow to gain a deeper understanding of the bond the other five share. He is a sixth element to this film that gives us the outsiders view into this inside bond. In instances like that packing scene and that boat scene right from the get go you can begin to understand the role David is playing to Paul.

With such stellar performances director Spike Lee beautifully showed the building, uniting and developing of these characters by pulling emotion from these actors and choreographing them in a way that really gives us a sense of these men and the bond they share as war buddies. Yes, the characters fight, but when the men unite it’s powerful. all of them touch fists in a circle, uniting as one, which helps them make up for their disagreements and remind them that they are in this together as a team. As the film goes on, we see the five men look out for each other, leaving scenes together as a pack, carrying each other when they’re too drunk or looking out for each other when they are being shot at. The director plays some subtle jokes as well. Take for instance one of the scenes that really sets the tone for happens at the beginning, I’ll call it “the firecracker scene” because it really pops and unifies the four men.

The cinematography by Newton Thomas Sigel is brilliant. We see clips from the Vietnam war in the mists of the movie as the screen size changes to give us a clear distinction of present time of the brothers and the past war. When things like a helicopter get blown up, we see the spiral with lots of smoke and the men run out quickly as the camera follows that. The camera does well at capturing the action. The camera gives us many different clips from several different speakers. The camera really does tell the story from so many shifts. When you look at it though, it could’ve been super confusing but Sigel made it obvious. War clips are a difference in screen size, speaker clips look archival and the rest of the film is a full screen high resolution performance. Brilliantly done.

In conclusion, I would call Da 5 Bloods worth a watch. It’s got so many elements that make it worth seeing. It’s got great performances like actor Delroy Lindo, clips from speakers like Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King Jr, great messages like Black Lives Matter and a great take by the director Spike Lee. See it when you have the time. It will be worth it.