Review "Da 5 Bloods" by Spike Lee: the rage of a committed filmmaker

Committed filmmaker Spike Lee is back with a new political film. After Blackkklansman, he returned with Da 5 Bloods, another social critique of the status of African-Americans in the United States. For the occasion, he brings together a heterogeneous cast including Chadwick Boseman, Jean Reno, Delroy Lindo, Paul Walter Hauser and Mélanie Thierry. And again, Spike Lee hit hard. Da 5 Bloods is available on Netflix since Friday, June 12, 2020. Da 5 Bloods tells the story of how four friends, veterans of the Vietnam War, decide to return there. Their goal is to find the remains of their fallen leader and a hypothetical treasure. With Da 5 Bloods, Spike Lee offers more than 2h30 of footage. Another proof of the freedom that Netflix leaves to its directors after the 3h30 of The Irishman.

A slightly too slow implementation

Spike Lee is back up, and he makes it feel once again through a committed film. Da 5 Bloods makes a sad echo of the murder of George Floyd and the fight of "Black Lives Matter". Da 5 Bloods falls once again unfortunately at the right time. The filmmaker wants to sign an eminently political film, through which he seeks to point out what place white America reserves for its black citizens. However, Spike Lee takes too much time. Especially through the first part which offers a contextualization sometimes too long and a quest that takes time to begin. Fortunately, the second part is much more rhythmic, offers perfectly controlled action sequences and a more fluid sequence. This second part sometimes echoes Triple Frontier, especially in its approach to money, American soldiers, and their relationship with the government. As in J .C. Chandor, Da 5 Bloods depicts the portraits of veterans disillusioned by their government, who feel aggrieved, abandoned, by an administration that owes them a lot but gives them nothing. Both films are found in the treatment of the shattered American dream. A false dream, in the face of bitter veterans vis-à-vis the lack of recognition of their state. As in Triple Frontiers, these former soldiers decide to try everything for the whole by their own means.

An eminently political film

Through this speech, Spike Lee recalls the place of veterans. Soldiers, heroes in the service of a country that does not recognize their value, preferring to forget them. A subject addressed in countless productions, from Rambo to The Punisher. But in addition to this status of veteran never rewarded, Spike Lee obviously addresses the place of African-Americans in his country. He recalls that in addition to being veterans, his characters are black. A dual status with which it is difficult to negotiate in a deeply white America. Spike Lee makes a very political film in which he connects power, money and being black. He recalls that African-Americans have partly defeated this nation, but that they receive no compensation. And this, while they will sacrifice themselves in enemy lines. This quest for lost treasure is an intelligent parallel. A metaphor of recognition, rebellion for freedom. It is also the representation of capitalist society, of the ever more stingy desire for the accumulation of wealth. A treasure that rots souls, disrupts the mind, and ultimately creates fragmentation within society. The division of men because of the power of money. It also offers a radical finale, which echoes the racial violence that the United States constantly suffers. By incorporating a few archival images, he anchors his work in reality, and thus gives it a much greater scope. Then he concludes his story with a touch of saving moralization. He claims that if wealth were shared and used for the common good, the Earth would turn a little rounder! Da 5 Bloods is therefore a reassembled and committed Spike Lee. Totally enraged, one constantly feels his weariness, his nervousness, his sadness and his rage against the racial violence of his nation. Anti-war, anti-facho, anti-racist, Da 5 Bloods is a burning political manifesto. A terribly committed film in which Spike Lee puts all his frustration. Even if the story is a bit too long, it depicts an unequal and racist capitalist America. He points to the place of blacks in a country dominated by war and money. 

Da 5 Bloods – Trailer

https://youtu.be/g_vI-IXjMM4