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Review: Da 5 Bloods (2020)
This is another one of Spike Lee’s films that I feel is likely very close to him. This was a war movie, set in the present day, but very much tied to the Vietnam War. I certainly didn’t understand everything that happened in this movie, but I would still consider it an interesting movie.
Spoilers.
Story
This movie was about four former Vietnam vets who were black, returning to Vietnam to retrieve gold that they had uncovered during the Vietnam War. They were originally five, but one of them, Norman, had died during the war. Several of the characters had their own issues and ghosts to worry about. Otis had a lover during the Vietnam war and he reconnected with her as she helped them smuggle the gold. Paul had an extremely strained relationship with his son who joined them on the trip. Eddie appeared rich but was broke.
Otis, Paul, Eddie, Melvin, and David (Paul’s son) trekked through the jungle to find their gold. However, they stumbled upon landmines, killing Eddie. They bumped into Hedy, Simon, and Seppo, who helped them save David from another landmine.
Afterwards, Paul grew suspicious of everyone, including his own friends, and left the group. He had a vision where Norman assured Paul that his death was an accident. Paul was attacked and killed by Vietnamese officers (who were later revealed to have been working for Desroches, a French smuggler).
The remaining group of Otis, Melvin, David, Hedy, Simon, and Vinh (the guide) launched an attack on Desroche when he tried to turn on them and take the gold. In the end, they all received their cut of the gold, put towards various causes.
The movie ended with a motivational scene in support of the Black lives matter movement.
There was a lot going on in this movie, but it was definitely all tied with Black history and Black culture.
Production
This movie had a bit of a collage style to it, particularly at first. As the characters spoke, we would see snippets explaining various historical events, both from the Vietnam war and from parts of Black history in the U.S. These inserts decreased as the movie went on, and the tone of the movie grew a lot more serious.
The acting was fine, though I felt that some of the acting from the supporting actors was a little lacking, and this may have been due to the fact that some of the actors were acting in a second language.
I also felt that there were some parts of the movie that were heavy handed at times, and it could afford to be a little less explicit. The moment I was thinking of was when Otis discovered that he and Tien had a daughter. I thought it was fairly easy to infer and Otis didn’t really have to mention it. The ending was also a little heavy handed but I can understand why Spike Lee would want to be as explicit as possible with his support for the Black lives matter movement.
Characters
Otis
Otis was the leader of the group and the one who had put the trip together, hiring their guide and preparing their papers. Otis’ backstory was that he had had a lover during the Vietnam war, Tien. Otis visited Tien to catch up, and also because she would put them in touch with the French smuggler Desroche. It was also only then that Otis learned that he and Tien had had a daughter together.
Otis was meant to be the calm one of the group. Throughout Paul and David’s strained relationship, Otis was the bridge. He was more of a father figure to David than Paul ever was. After the group changed significantly, with Eddie’s death and Paul’s departure, it was Otis who organized them all, promised the new additions their share, etc.
At the end of the movie, Otis returned to Tien’s home where he finally met his daughter officially as her father.
Paul
Paul was definitely the character with the most action-packed journey in this movie. When we first met him, he presented himself as someone standing for Republican values, and he was in support of Trump. He was even wearing a MAGA hat. This subjected him to ridicule, but the others brushed it off a bit as they were longtime friends.
Paul had a very strained relationship with his son. He was very displeased that David had joined the trip and wanted in on the money. At that time, Paul very explicitly told David that he was a burden and always had been.
Paul was shown to hold racist views towards the Vietnamese. When he was hounded aggressively by a vendor selling chickens, he called him a derogatory term. Paul had a panic attack from the argument. When in the jungle, Paul accused Tien of conning them and also called her derogatory names.
After the group got their gold, Paul changed his mind about the gold and said that David should have had a share for his help. We see that Paul is extremely flippant with his love for David, only expressing love when he’s in a good mood and otherwise expressing displeasure at his mere existence.
Paul grew very paranoid after their operation was discovered. Hedy, Seppo, Simon, and Vinh found out about the operation. When they were tracked down by Desroche’s men, Paul got into another argument with them. After the fight, Paul left the group, calling his son a backstabber, though at this point we’re seeing that a lot of his viewpoints don’t really hold water.
While in the jungle on his own, he had a vision about Norman. We find out that Norman had died because he was trying to protect Paul. In the vision, Norman assured Paul that it was an accident and that he was not to blame. That vision seemed to clear up Paul’s mind about his priorities. He was tracked down by Desroche’s men again, but he refused to give up the locations of his friends and was later killed.
Paul wrote a letter to David that was to be delivered to him after Paul had died. In the letter, he expressed his love for his son.
Paul was an extremely troubled man. It was mentioned that he worshipped Norman like a religion, really believed in him. So it was definitely very difficult for Paul to accept that he was the reason for Norman’s death. He blamed it entirely on himself. Paul’s wife died in childbirth leaving him David. Paul treated David as his mother’s killer his entire life and never showed an ounce of love, telling him to his face that he was a burden. Paul struck me as a man who was rather lost, and that was why he latched onto ideologies so easily like a religion, whether it was Norman, or Trump. I don’t think that Paul is necessarily a naturally cruel man, but his unresolved issues definitely exacerbated his cruelty. He had encountered such trauma in Vietnam that he associated negativity with all of Vietnam. His mind was just extremely messy, and I don’t even believe that he meant it when he told David that he loved him. I think to a degree, Paul hated himself for being the reason for Norman’s death, so that was why he threw himself into ideologies to causes.
The vision of Norman was kind of cheesy, in the way that it cleared up Paul’s conscience entirely. But we can assume that him protecting his friends by not revealing their location was perhaps his last act of true love.
Eddie
Eddie was first portrayed as the one of the group who had made a lot of money after his career as a soldier. However, he later revealed that he was in massive debt due to irresponsible spending. He didn’t own any of the car dealerships that bore his name. He’d lost everything.
When the group was fighting (again) over whether David should receive a share, Eddie was arguing that Norman only ever wanted to get along. Due to Eddie having lost everything, he too was only concerned with their friendship as that was all he had. As he was explaining this, he stepped on a landmine and died. His death was very sudden.
Eddie had mentioned wanting to use the money for good, so his share of the money was donated to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Melvin
Melvin had a smaller role in the group. He didn’t have a character story at all. I just remember him as the guy with the metal detector.
David
David was Paul’s son. Paul was very displeased when he found out that David had joined their trip. At first, David looked like an opportunist who just wanted the money. But we soon saw how Paul actually treated his son, how he treated his son worse than a stranger.
The trip to the jungle and finding the gold was a bonding experience for David and Paul. Saving David from the landmine was also a bonding experience for David and Paul. But we saw soon enough how fickle Paul was with David. After the fight with Desroche’s people, Paul left the group and called David a backstabber when he’d hardly done anything. When prodded by Hedy, David revealed that his mother had died in childbirth and his father had blamed him since, not showing an ounce of love. David was shot in the leg during the fight with Desroche’s people, but he survived. After he returned home, he read the letter from Paul.
He was a teacher, and I think he represented the importance of teaching Black history to the next generations.
Norman
Norman was their leader when they were in Vietnam. He had died while trying to cover Paul, and Paul blamed himself, even if he didn’t realize it. Norman had to come back from the grave as a vision for Paul to let go.
I wonder if it was purposeful for Norm to sound like Nam. Norman represented Vietnam to them, because he was bigger than life, especially to Paul.
Vinh
Vinh was their guide. He only led them to the edge of the jungle, and had advised the group it was a bad idea not to bring him along. He realized something was off when the group returned and Eddie was not with them, and they had gained Simon and Hedy. He was offered money to leave the issue alone before they were ambushed by Desroche’s men.
Vinh helped the Bloods ambush Desroche’s men, and took his cut of the money. It’s not clear what Vinh used his money for, but he’s shown sitting at an office.
Tien
Tien was Otis’ lover. It was revealed that Tien and Otis had a daughter, Michon. After the war, Tien struggled to make a living as her mixed race daughter was discriminated against. Tien put Otis in touch with Desroche. She also provided Otis with a gun for protection. Paul was suspicious towards Tien and thought that she might have been in cahoots with Tien, but Otis defended her completely. At the end of the movie, Tien arranged for Otis to meet with Michon officially as her father.
I felt that Tien’s reunion with Otis was overly fantastical. I don’t think it ever would have played out that way as a calm dinner. Tien and Otis likely would have had much to sort through especially if Otis had not returned to Vietnam since the war, and if Tien had struggled to make a living because of who she had a baby with. But she and Otis were portrayed as a very stable couple. Not the worst, as I found their stable relationship kind of refreshing, but with the backdrop of war, it was kind of hard to believe.
Hedy Bouvier
Hedy founded an organization that disabled landmines in Vietnam. She mentioned that her presumably well-off family had exploited the Vietnamese people for a long time, and that was her way of making a positive difference.
Hedy and David had gotten to talking, so obviously it was very shocking when she (with Simon and Seppo) got caught up with Paul and his extremely paranoid and suspicious tendencies. However, she eventually realized that David was also a victim of his father’s issues.
In the end, Hedy had her share of the money donated to her organization in Seppo’s name.
Themes
Vietnam War
I am not knowledgeable about the Vietnam War, and particularly not the role of Black soldiers in the Vietnam War. I think the movie tried to express that though Black soldiers fought for the US in Vietnam, that did not change how they were treated back home. They were fighting two wars, both in Vietnam and in the US.
However, there were also tensions between the Bloods and the Vietnamese, particularly Paul. I heard a couple of Vietnamese people refer to the war as the American War, which is odd considering people in the Anglosphere would refer to it as the Vietnam War, as it was fought in Vietnam. But to some Vietnamese folks, it seems they would consider it an American War due to the US having sent their troops to Vietnam to fight it.
I think I’d definitely have a lot more to say on this if I knew more about the Vietnam War.
Racism
Despite Paul being a Black man in America, he seemed to pick up on some of the White racist values. For example, he was in favour of the border wall keeping the immigrants out. Just the fact that he had a MAGA hat meant he was a diehard Trump supporter.
Paul also held some staunchly racist values against the Vietnamese. He called them derogatory names and looked down upon them. That may have been because the war had him associating Vietnam with bad things only, but some people definitely hold those values.
Trauma
Paul had a lot of unresolved trauma. He refused to seek help for it even when suggested by his friends. He had panic attacks, an overly averse reaction to some things in Vietnam. He was proud of being American despite being a discriminated group in the country, because he so much needed to know he was doing the right thing, being on the right side.
His son David was the victim of intergenerational trauma as well. Paul handled his wife’s death very poorly and directed all of his negative views outwardly to his son who never experienced an ounce of love from Paul.
Overall
This was an interesting movie. I do think I would have gotten more out of it if I knew more about the Vietnam War, as well as Black history in America. I don’t think it was a perfect movie, and I do think that the story was a bit lopsided (i.e. with Paul's trauma). But it was an alright movie.
Spoilers.
Story
This movie was about four former Vietnam vets who were black, returning to Vietnam to retrieve gold that they had uncovered during the Vietnam War. They were originally five, but one of them, Norman, had died during the war. Several of the characters had their own issues and ghosts to worry about. Otis had a lover during the Vietnam war and he reconnected with her as she helped them smuggle the gold. Paul had an extremely strained relationship with his son who joined them on the trip. Eddie appeared rich but was broke.
Otis, Paul, Eddie, Melvin, and David (Paul’s son) trekked through the jungle to find their gold. However, they stumbled upon landmines, killing Eddie. They bumped into Hedy, Simon, and Seppo, who helped them save David from another landmine.
Afterwards, Paul grew suspicious of everyone, including his own friends, and left the group. He had a vision where Norman assured Paul that his death was an accident. Paul was attacked and killed by Vietnamese officers (who were later revealed to have been working for Desroches, a French smuggler).
The remaining group of Otis, Melvin, David, Hedy, Simon, and Vinh (the guide) launched an attack on Desroche when he tried to turn on them and take the gold. In the end, they all received their cut of the gold, put towards various causes.
The movie ended with a motivational scene in support of the Black lives matter movement.
There was a lot going on in this movie, but it was definitely all tied with Black history and Black culture.
Production
This movie had a bit of a collage style to it, particularly at first. As the characters spoke, we would see snippets explaining various historical events, both from the Vietnam war and from parts of Black history in the U.S. These inserts decreased as the movie went on, and the tone of the movie grew a lot more serious.
The acting was fine, though I felt that some of the acting from the supporting actors was a little lacking, and this may have been due to the fact that some of the actors were acting in a second language.
I also felt that there were some parts of the movie that were heavy handed at times, and it could afford to be a little less explicit. The moment I was thinking of was when Otis discovered that he and Tien had a daughter. I thought it was fairly easy to infer and Otis didn’t really have to mention it. The ending was also a little heavy handed but I can understand why Spike Lee would want to be as explicit as possible with his support for the Black lives matter movement.
Characters
Otis
Otis was the leader of the group and the one who had put the trip together, hiring their guide and preparing their papers. Otis’ backstory was that he had had a lover during the Vietnam war, Tien. Otis visited Tien to catch up, and also because she would put them in touch with the French smuggler Desroche. It was also only then that Otis learned that he and Tien had had a daughter together.
Otis was meant to be the calm one of the group. Throughout Paul and David’s strained relationship, Otis was the bridge. He was more of a father figure to David than Paul ever was. After the group changed significantly, with Eddie’s death and Paul’s departure, it was Otis who organized them all, promised the new additions their share, etc.
At the end of the movie, Otis returned to Tien’s home where he finally met his daughter officially as her father.
Paul
Paul was definitely the character with the most action-packed journey in this movie. When we first met him, he presented himself as someone standing for Republican values, and he was in support of Trump. He was even wearing a MAGA hat. This subjected him to ridicule, but the others brushed it off a bit as they were longtime friends.
Paul had a very strained relationship with his son. He was very displeased that David had joined the trip and wanted in on the money. At that time, Paul very explicitly told David that he was a burden and always had been.
Paul was shown to hold racist views towards the Vietnamese. When he was hounded aggressively by a vendor selling chickens, he called him a derogatory term. Paul had a panic attack from the argument. When in the jungle, Paul accused Tien of conning them and also called her derogatory names.
After the group got their gold, Paul changed his mind about the gold and said that David should have had a share for his help. We see that Paul is extremely flippant with his love for David, only expressing love when he’s in a good mood and otherwise expressing displeasure at his mere existence.
Paul grew very paranoid after their operation was discovered. Hedy, Seppo, Simon, and Vinh found out about the operation. When they were tracked down by Desroche’s men, Paul got into another argument with them. After the fight, Paul left the group, calling his son a backstabber, though at this point we’re seeing that a lot of his viewpoints don’t really hold water.
While in the jungle on his own, he had a vision about Norman. We find out that Norman had died because he was trying to protect Paul. In the vision, Norman assured Paul that it was an accident and that he was not to blame. That vision seemed to clear up Paul’s mind about his priorities. He was tracked down by Desroche’s men again, but he refused to give up the locations of his friends and was later killed.
Paul wrote a letter to David that was to be delivered to him after Paul had died. In the letter, he expressed his love for his son.
Paul was an extremely troubled man. It was mentioned that he worshipped Norman like a religion, really believed in him. So it was definitely very difficult for Paul to accept that he was the reason for Norman’s death. He blamed it entirely on himself. Paul’s wife died in childbirth leaving him David. Paul treated David as his mother’s killer his entire life and never showed an ounce of love, telling him to his face that he was a burden. Paul struck me as a man who was rather lost, and that was why he latched onto ideologies so easily like a religion, whether it was Norman, or Trump. I don’t think that Paul is necessarily a naturally cruel man, but his unresolved issues definitely exacerbated his cruelty. He had encountered such trauma in Vietnam that he associated negativity with all of Vietnam. His mind was just extremely messy, and I don’t even believe that he meant it when he told David that he loved him. I think to a degree, Paul hated himself for being the reason for Norman’s death, so that was why he threw himself into ideologies to causes.
The vision of Norman was kind of cheesy, in the way that it cleared up Paul’s conscience entirely. But we can assume that him protecting his friends by not revealing their location was perhaps his last act of true love.
Eddie
Eddie was first portrayed as the one of the group who had made a lot of money after his career as a soldier. However, he later revealed that he was in massive debt due to irresponsible spending. He didn’t own any of the car dealerships that bore his name. He’d lost everything.
When the group was fighting (again) over whether David should receive a share, Eddie was arguing that Norman only ever wanted to get along. Due to Eddie having lost everything, he too was only concerned with their friendship as that was all he had. As he was explaining this, he stepped on a landmine and died. His death was very sudden.
Eddie had mentioned wanting to use the money for good, so his share of the money was donated to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Melvin
Melvin had a smaller role in the group. He didn’t have a character story at all. I just remember him as the guy with the metal detector.
David
David was Paul’s son. Paul was very displeased when he found out that David had joined their trip. At first, David looked like an opportunist who just wanted the money. But we soon saw how Paul actually treated his son, how he treated his son worse than a stranger.
The trip to the jungle and finding the gold was a bonding experience for David and Paul. Saving David from the landmine was also a bonding experience for David and Paul. But we saw soon enough how fickle Paul was with David. After the fight with Desroche’s people, Paul left the group and called David a backstabber when he’d hardly done anything. When prodded by Hedy, David revealed that his mother had died in childbirth and his father had blamed him since, not showing an ounce of love. David was shot in the leg during the fight with Desroche’s people, but he survived. After he returned home, he read the letter from Paul.
He was a teacher, and I think he represented the importance of teaching Black history to the next generations.
Norman
Norman was their leader when they were in Vietnam. He had died while trying to cover Paul, and Paul blamed himself, even if he didn’t realize it. Norman had to come back from the grave as a vision for Paul to let go.
I wonder if it was purposeful for Norm to sound like Nam. Norman represented Vietnam to them, because he was bigger than life, especially to Paul.
Vinh
Vinh was their guide. He only led them to the edge of the jungle, and had advised the group it was a bad idea not to bring him along. He realized something was off when the group returned and Eddie was not with them, and they had gained Simon and Hedy. He was offered money to leave the issue alone before they were ambushed by Desroche’s men.
Vinh helped the Bloods ambush Desroche’s men, and took his cut of the money. It’s not clear what Vinh used his money for, but he’s shown sitting at an office.
Tien
Tien was Otis’ lover. It was revealed that Tien and Otis had a daughter, Michon. After the war, Tien struggled to make a living as her mixed race daughter was discriminated against. Tien put Otis in touch with Desroche. She also provided Otis with a gun for protection. Paul was suspicious towards Tien and thought that she might have been in cahoots with Tien, but Otis defended her completely. At the end of the movie, Tien arranged for Otis to meet with Michon officially as her father.
I felt that Tien’s reunion with Otis was overly fantastical. I don’t think it ever would have played out that way as a calm dinner. Tien and Otis likely would have had much to sort through especially if Otis had not returned to Vietnam since the war, and if Tien had struggled to make a living because of who she had a baby with. But she and Otis were portrayed as a very stable couple. Not the worst, as I found their stable relationship kind of refreshing, but with the backdrop of war, it was kind of hard to believe.
Hedy Bouvier
Hedy founded an organization that disabled landmines in Vietnam. She mentioned that her presumably well-off family had exploited the Vietnamese people for a long time, and that was her way of making a positive difference.
Hedy and David had gotten to talking, so obviously it was very shocking when she (with Simon and Seppo) got caught up with Paul and his extremely paranoid and suspicious tendencies. However, she eventually realized that David was also a victim of his father’s issues.
In the end, Hedy had her share of the money donated to her organization in Seppo’s name.
Themes
Vietnam War
I am not knowledgeable about the Vietnam War, and particularly not the role of Black soldiers in the Vietnam War. I think the movie tried to express that though Black soldiers fought for the US in Vietnam, that did not change how they were treated back home. They were fighting two wars, both in Vietnam and in the US.
However, there were also tensions between the Bloods and the Vietnamese, particularly Paul. I heard a couple of Vietnamese people refer to the war as the American War, which is odd considering people in the Anglosphere would refer to it as the Vietnam War, as it was fought in Vietnam. But to some Vietnamese folks, it seems they would consider it an American War due to the US having sent their troops to Vietnam to fight it.
I think I’d definitely have a lot more to say on this if I knew more about the Vietnam War.
Racism
Despite Paul being a Black man in America, he seemed to pick up on some of the White racist values. For example, he was in favour of the border wall keeping the immigrants out. Just the fact that he had a MAGA hat meant he was a diehard Trump supporter.
Paul also held some staunchly racist values against the Vietnamese. He called them derogatory names and looked down upon them. That may have been because the war had him associating Vietnam with bad things only, but some people definitely hold those values.
Trauma
Paul had a lot of unresolved trauma. He refused to seek help for it even when suggested by his friends. He had panic attacks, an overly averse reaction to some things in Vietnam. He was proud of being American despite being a discriminated group in the country, because he so much needed to know he was doing the right thing, being on the right side.
His son David was the victim of intergenerational trauma as well. Paul handled his wife’s death very poorly and directed all of his negative views outwardly to his son who never experienced an ounce of love from Paul.
Overall
This was an interesting movie. I do think I would have gotten more out of it if I knew more about the Vietnam War, as well as Black history in America. I don’t think it was a perfect movie, and I do think that the story was a bit lopsided (i.e. with Paul's trauma). But it was an alright movie.