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Spike Lee's latest joint comes courtesy of Netflix. Following BlacKkKlansman, which became the biggest success of his career, earning him a writing Oscar and even greater mainstream appeal, his transition to the streaming giant offers him a bigger budget and more creative freedom than ever before. But it is perhaps that artistic license that prevents Da 5 Bloods from being the great film it could be.
Four African American veterans return to Vietnam in search of the remains of their fallen squad leader and the promise of buried treasure. Repurposing Danny Bilson and Paul de Meo's script by reframing it through the lens of the otherwise unrepresented black soldiers in conflict, Lee and Kevin Willmott's screenplay places brotherhood, anguish and injustice at the heart of a war epic which wears its influences on its sleeve.
Describing a Spike Lee joint as urgent feels redundant, for he has long been a director to speak loudly and passionately. Arriving in the middle of worldwide anguish following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, which has placed a renewed focus on the injustice faced by Black folk across the world through the hard work of the Black Lives Matter movement (details for which, including donation and resource links, can be found here), this rallying and cathartic cry of a film could not be more relevant in relation to these current events. Recalibrating the screenplay from the viewpoint of African American veterans proves to be a smart one, delving into thematic ground and new perspectives that result in a sharper, more refreshing social commentary within a typical war film template; while homages to Apocalypse Now could not be more blatant, it enriches the experience overall, emphasising the new outlook Lee is offering us.
Encompassing a number of genres, Da 5 Bloods is one of Lee's most ambitious and expansive features to date. It tries to be many things and Lee attempts to do many things, utilising a number of filmmaking techniques that demonstrate his skill and versatility as a director; from the adjusting aspect ratio to the home video-style footage, Lee is armed with a number of impressive techniques that would feel at home on the biggest screen possible. Particularly, the way he handles the flashbacks, supported by the decision to avoid de-ageing his actors, means they play out more like dream-like memories, enhancing both our emotional connection to these characters and our understanding of their brotherhood, preserved in time by their shared experiences as both veterans and people of colour. And as reliable as ever, Terrence Blanchard's score provides a brilliant grandeur to every scene and emotion.
Assembling an impressive ensemble, every major player carries their fair share of the load - but Delroy Lindo steamrolls through, with a career-high performance that crackles in its intensity and complexity. Da 5 Bloods' strongest moments can be almost exclusively attributed to him, his layered portrayal of a PTSD-suffering, Trump-supporting veteran adding an additional layer to the film's political subtext that has been rarely explored on screen until now. While not to discredit the consistent work else, Lindo's name will be the one remembered and, should an award season come to fruition this year, we should expect to see recognition.
Da 5 Bloods' is distinctively Lee's in both the best and worst ways. Suffering from issues that have plagued a good portion of his previous features, in rushing to say so much with such ferocious energy, the execution can feel messy, sporadic and a little unfocused as a result. Overlong, and in turn patchy in its pacing, it is bloated by tangents that distract from the more interesting material at the core. There's a concise, neater feature in here but at 156 minutes it can feel lost in an excessively-padded and sometimes jumbled picture.
While Netflix's global dominance has provided filmmakers with the means to make projects that would simply not be funded by studios whose main goal is to turn a profit, Lee is the sort of filmmaker who could do with that restraint, the comparatively free reigns leaving the writer-director with arguably too much creative freedom. There's a great film if it could all come into focus but instead we're left with a good yet flawed feature intent on doing the most with little reflection on whether it's all needed, and whether so many tangents actually benefits the overall film. We need Lee's impassioned voice in cinema and Da 5 Bloods is an important film - it could just be an even better quality film with more control.
Summary: Spike Lee continues to be one of cinema's most vital voices and the impassioned Da 5 Bloods explores new ground in the well-worn war genre, despite suffering from an excessive runtime and uneven pacing.