movie review - Da 5 Bloods
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
Every time I sit in front of a Spike Lee movie, I'm hoping for "Do the Right Thing" or "Malcolm X", and not, say, "She's Gotta Have It" or "School Daze" (which was the first of his works I saw). "Da 5 Bloods" is a mix, combining strong narrative story-telling with the direct-to-viewer stuff that speaks either to ego or a misunderstanding of the medium that I can't believe would be possible.
Using different film formats to convey the different time periods in which it is set, Lee tells a story that happens during the Vietnam war and the current time, plus some other scenes that happened along the way. It's got a great cast and a clever story about American veterans of the Vietnam war returning to claim the remains of a friend they left behind, and to find long-buried gold. Each of the characters has a story worth exploring (e.g. the one who bought the tickets is about to declare bankruptcy; another, whose health is failing, has to connect with a child he didn't know existed), but the one we have our eyes on is the one who's melting down after a long life spent consumed by pain and anger that have translated into hate. This character is played by Delroy Lindo* in an all-consuming performance that was so good I wanted to hug the poor bastard. It reminded me strongly of some of the men in my family.
There are some scenes in this film that are so well-made, especially when the gold turns up and the Black heroes are confronted by Vietnamese gangsters and European do-gooders, are pretty unforgettable. Unfortunately there's also a lot of material that veers between story telling and lecturing. It's a maddening let-down and it's the same thing we see in "Star Wars" and "Star Trek Discovery" and countless other things. It's not enough that there's a story to tell, the teller has to drive the point home outside the text. This stuff should remain sub-text, that's what writing is all about.
Not recommended.
*Who I ran into once at the "One of a Kind" show in Toronto much to my surprise.