PROVOKR PICK: DA 5 BLOODS

Reliving the Trauma of Vietnam in New Spike Lee Joint

Home page image: artwork for Spike Lee's 'Da Five Bloods'; image above: a scene from 'Da Five Bloods'

BY: Amanda Jane Stern

In Spike Lee’s new Netflix movie, Da 5 Bloods, four African-American Vietnam War veterans return to Vietnam searching for their fallen squad leader and buried treasure. When they get there, they realize that they will have to contend with the forces of nature and their PTSD to survive.

A couple of weeks ago, we covered the trailer for this movie and it looks great. It appears that the action takes place over two different timelines. The first is present-day, when our four veterans and one of their sons, return to Vietnam. The second timeline is a flashback to the Vietnam War, where we meet the fallen squad leader and the story surrounding the buried treasure. The film, which at least from the trailer, pays homage to Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 classic Apocalypse Now and uses archival Vietnam War-era footage.

Da 5 Bloods stars Delroy Lindo (Get Shorty), Norm Lewis (Scandal), Clarke Peters (The Wire) and Isiah Whitlock Jr. (BlacKkKlansman) as Paul, Eddie, Otis and Melvin, the four vets who go back to Vietnam along with Jonathan Majors (The Last Black Man in San Francisco) as Paul’s son, David. Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther) plays Norman, their fallen squad leader.