Regie:
Spike LeeCamera:
Newton Thomas SigelMuziek:
Terence BlanchardActeurs:
Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Chadwick Boseman, Jean Reno, Mélanie Thierry, Paul Walter Hauser (meer)Streaming (1)
Samenvattingen(1)
Four African American veterans return to Vietnam decades after the war to find their squad leader's remains — and a stash of buried gold. (Netflix)
Video's (1)
Recensie (4)
Four African-American Vietnam veterans go back to pick up the remains of a dead comrade and about 17 million dollars worth of gold bullion. They talk about brotherhood, get into arguments, want to kill themselves. They have a complicated, trying-to-be-cool greeting. Only the last hour - from the scene with the mine onward - is worth any attention. Spike Lee must have gone crazy, just like one of the protagonists (Paul? I think it was Paul), letting the film go on for a full two and a half hours. Waves of boring, would-be artistic detours (Martin Luther King and Marvin Gaye) glorifying blackness with no added value. The dialog is packed with unimportant details… these should have been left on the cutting-room floor. The actors’ performances, however, are superb, and Delroy Lindo is the best by far. The action is good and bloody and the conflict with the “gooks" was entertaining. If it had been ninety minutes long, it would have been pretty good. I usually enjoy treasure hunt films, but this is shiiiiit.
()
Da 5 Bloods is an overly loose mix of myriad repetitive political opinions, adventure poetics and Blanchard’s epic music, which plays nonsensically even in scenes in which there should be silence. Perhaps that was done to counteract the lengthiness and dramatic feebleness of the plot structure. Several scenes, especially in the first half, feel terribly like they are twice as long as they needed to be. The most expressive character, played by Delroy Lindo, is unlikable and even annoying in his close-up monologues. That said, the film’s pleasant feel-good nature cannot be denied.
()
An inconsistent matter. First, it suggests an odd combination of Apocalypse Now and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. At the same time, it is like a history book for primary schools about Afro-American heroes Spike Lee would have written, hammered into your brain every two minutes over two and a half hours. Political commitment in this piece is all over the place, and instead of subtle allusions, Lee opted for total literalness, so in the end, even if you’re not devastated by the story itself, you might well be by this political overload you just absorbed. Fortunately, the movie is not boring despite its length, and all that adventure offers both an ample dose of—deliberate?—kitsch and a storyline full of surprises and poignant moments, one of which being the very peculiar evolution of Paul, along with the character’s interpretation by actor Delroy Lindo.
()
If a more traditional Hollywood director had tackled this premise, it probably would’ve turned out tighter—but it also would've lost a lot of its focus on Black culture, which is really what this film is all about. Spike Lee, of course, leans heavily into that, mixing in politics, turning it into a pseudo-documentary at times, and honestly, dragging it out a bit too long. There are, however, some scenes that completely drew me in, especially when the characters are navigating the tension of the Vietnamese jungle. Watching the old man with the metal detector was a highlight for me, even though the story veers off into an unnecessary thriller direction later on. It could’ve been a simpler film, and I wouldn’t have minded. But still, I loved Isiah Whitlock Jr. and his iconic "shiiiiit" line. It’s a movie full of highs and lows, reasons to watch and reasons not to, but in the end, I’m glad I saw it. It’s an interesting, if flawed, piece that definitely feels like a Spike Lee joint.
()
Reclame