Da 5 Bloods (2020) - movie review

The second movie on the list of Richard Brody’s Top 36 movies of 2020. I didn’t plan on watching them in chronological order but I’ve heard a lot of things about this movie so I decided to watch it on Netflix.

            I went into the movie blind. I didn’t watch the trailer, I feel that it’s important to watch since it’s released when the Black Lives Matter movement in the US is gotten louder and its message amplified throughout the world. I’ve been planning to get reading material or anything that can provide me with knowledge and a brief history about racism against black people and person of colour in the US. And being Indonesian, I acknowledge that racism is also happening in the country where I live in. With the movement finally getting the attention that it deserves, I kind of in a quest of gaining myself the nuances and what’s happening in the past that getting us to this point where crimes and inhuman acts based on race, gender, people’s individual identity, are happening every day.

            

            The movie opens with scenes and clips that provide the audience, me, the context of this movie and that decision is totally working because the only references I have on the Vietnam War is Rambo that I watched when I was a little kid.

“Da 5 Bloods” tells us story of 4 veteran Vietnam War soldier that came back to Vietnam, intentionally to retrieve the remains of the fellow ‘Blood’ soldier (played by Chadwick Boseman) that died in a battle during the Vietnam War. But, it turns out they not only retrieve the remains but to also to retrieve the million dollars gold treasure that they buried during their duty there.

Speaking of the cultural and societal aspect of the movie, I, as a Southeast Asia citizen didn’t know enough about it, but there is one scene that made me sit and just think to myself, “is the sentiment of the past still that strong towards every side involves in the war?” But, the answer to that question, I could also, take from what my late-grandfather told me as he was also a veteran that once assigned for a short period of time in Vietnam. I recalled that I could see him felt some nostalgic sentimental feeling when he was telling me his lifetime when he was serving.

The one scene I mentioned is the scene when they were in a boat in a floating market, there is this one guy that sells living chickens and he tries to force Paul – a character played by Delroy Lindo, that having PTSD, to buy one. And Paul was upset and agitated then the seller screams at them, at Paul, accusing that they take parts of killing his father. The sentimental purpose of the scene, I understand. But, I also can’t help shaking the feeling that I sort of sceptical about the whole scene. An A-ha! thought was popped up in my mind, “racism is a complex issue, it depends on where the issue is being placed.”

Without having to undermine the value of the BLM movement, and having to watch this movie when the Asian Hate Crime issue is starting to come up to the surface at the same time when I finished watching this, is kind of make me evaluate this movie and seeing it from a different perspective than, for probably, the critics in the US. I acknowledged the fact that it’s time for the Black people in the film industry receive the spotlight and speak their voice not just by a representation but to have recognition, and the platform to tell their story in the narrative. But, to change how society perceives people of color, other than Black, for example, brown people and indigenous in the context of the theme of this movie, we should at least listen to their story.

Overall, this recent movie by Spike Lee still left a gut-wrenching, eye-opening story that brought a difficult issue and theme to address. As always, the theme is packed in a fictional narrative as good as it turns out. Marvin Gaye’s songs throughout the film, the aspect ratio technique to differentiate the timeline, is a formula that works to live up the story.

There is an article in The New York Times written by Viet Thanh Nguyen, Vietnamese-American novelist. In this article, he sums up his feeling toward the movie and his experience and intakes when watching this movie. Here’s the link if you’re interested in reading it. If you want to watch it, you can pick it up on Netflix. (/mc)