Netflix Review - Da 5 Bloods (2020)

It’s no surprise that this Netflix original Spike Lee Joint is particularly crisp on morals, dignity , histrionics and narrative social commentary.

In a prologue featuring interweaved archival / iconic footage including Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King; it sets a figurative stance early of what cinematic potency to expect from a director with game.

Following four African-American veterans returning to the hallowed ground of Vietnam to find the remains of a fallen comrade and quite possibly a stash of unclaimed buried treasure left on site decades earlier.

The journey takes a multitude of turns including long trips down memory lane both good and bad in flashback form when their squad leader (played by Black Panther Chadwick Boseman) was known as Stormin Norman.

Over two and a half hours this would be epic has passages of excellence that are both uncomfortable and important, friendship is prevalent as portrayed by a bunch of uncompromisable actors most notably the great Delroy Lindo, who has one particular directly into camera monologue that will draw you in before potentially weeping uncontrollably.

Leon The Professional, French screen legend Jean Reno, makes a welcomed cameo and fellow Parisian Melanie Thierry, glows eternally within the prominent male ensemble.

Not a war movie, not an action movie but has elements of both alongside interesting comedic moments of grandeur, albeit laced sad racial issues are never far away.

A Spike Lee movie seems to be always not pretty and relevant;

vivid Do the Right Thing (1989) is one of my all-time favourites.

Da 5 Bloods, is no exception with its experimental flourishes and stylistic approach whilst taking on one hell of serious unjustifiable subject