Da 5 Bloods

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nightwingnova
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Re: Da 5 Bloods

Post by nightwingnova »

So far, the film I've enjoyed the most this year: camaraderie, history, social issues, adventure, action, drama, and interesting back stories, all rolled together with love and panache.

I think Delroy Lindo overacts sometimes. The supporting cast are all superb.

It's a powerful message about social forces and history in a time when it matters so much, tied together with references that delight film buffs.
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Re: Da 5 Bloods

Post by Precious Doll »

Big Magilla wrote:I watched the first half hour, started to doze off, figured I'd better stop or I'll sleep through the whole thing, went back to Netflix, but got hooked on something else. I'll get back to it at some point.
I might have actually liked it if I'd slept through it.

I found it an endurance test. It reminded me of those Cannon exploitation films with Chuck Norris from the 1980's and in some ways that is appropriate given Oliver Stone's fingerprints are on it. At the rate Netflix is going in relation to quality they are the Cannon of the 21st century. For every film of quality (Marriage Story, The Irishman, 22 July, Private Life) there are dozens of dubious efforts.
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Re: Da 5 Bloods

Post by Big Magilla »

I watched the first half hour, started to doze off, figured I'd better stop or I'll sleep through the whole thing, went back to Netflix, but got hooked on something else. I'll get back to it at some point.
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Re: Da 5 Bloods

Post by Sabin »

Mister Tee wrote
And yet...and yet...it also reminded me just how much I love movies, and how bracing ambition can be even when it manifestly reaches too far. I spent as much of the time exhilarated by Lee's ideas and the scope of his story as I did panting trying to keep up with it.
Agreed. This is a movie.

I was never bored but I was never engaged, and I think the reason is The Bloods never quite come alive. As a storyteller, Spike is always going after ideas and history lessons occasionally at the expense of narrative and character. In this film, it really felt as though character and narrative took a backseat. It's as though Lee acts like the old black veterans gathering to get their old war buddy's body and buried gold -- and one of them is a MAGA guy -- is the boring part of the film. But he needed to invest in them more as individuals and as a collective so that we understood them and I think the film could've really been improved if he had invested more real estate in the beginning of the film to this. Or made us feel like they needed this gold instead of vaguely wanted it. It all feels like a shambling cosplaying affair that wants to be recognized as more, and it never really decides if it wants to be Tropic Thunder or a real piece of history. It sort of ends up coming across as a kinda goofy film begging for importance.

But I did enjoy its attempts. I want to see movies about black soldiers. I thought it would be very affecting to see Chadwick Boseman in this role as the deceased blood but it's actually very distracting. Why didn't they just cast another old guy?

On a technical standpoint, I think this ends up being one of Lee's more slapdash efforts. It looks good enough, but it's not terribly well edited. I don't know what the footage was to begin with it but all feels terribly disjointed and poorly paced. I've never been a big fan of Terence Blanchard's music. It works fairly well in BlacKkKlansman because he latches onto a fairly iconic jangle but here it's all terribly overbearing.

NOTE: Just found out this script was originally not about five black veterans. It was a script called 'The Last Tour' that Oliver Stone was going to direct but then dropped out of and then Spike Lee came on board and it was rewritten. Not a bad idea.
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Re: Da 5 Bloods

Post by Big Magilla »

It's on my list to watch. Should get to it soon.

Speculation is that Lindo will be campaigned in lead with former winners Anthony Hopkins (The Father) and Gary Oldman (Mank)seen as his toughest competition.

Boseman also has The Trial of the Chicago 7 in the minor role of Fred Hampton (also played this year by Daniel Kaluuya in Best Actor contention for Judas and the Black Messiah) and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom in the role that won Charles Dutton a Best Featured Actor Tony in 1985 and a nomination for Thomas Jefferson Byrd in the same category in the 2003 revival of the August Wilson play. That's the one which will likely be the one he's nominated for in support and could easily win for as well. Viola Davis has the title role.
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Da 5 Bloods

Post by Mister Tee »

I'm amazed no one has commented on this here, given that it's as close to a Real Movie as has emerged this year, and, in a non-COVID time, would have spent its few weeks in a theatre to qualify for the someday-they'll-hold-them 2020(-1?) Oscars. Then again, it took me quite a while to get around to watching it myself -- I had too much DVR to drain, then baseball started up, so it was hard fitting in 2 1/2 hours viewing time. But, at last, here I go.

The opening montage features a whole bunch of familiar late 60s/early 70s images, many of them germane to the story that follows, but a few (the moon landing, Nixon resigning) just boilerplate era references with no relation. This is kind of Spike Lee in a nutshell: he'll serve you six courses when three are plenty to fill you up; he doesn't have the gift for deciding which elements are essential to a work and which are extraneous. He gives you a plenty big enough premise -- Vietnam vets return decades later to recover remains of a fallen comrade plus a buried treasure, end up in certain ways refighting the war -- and loads on from there. He not only echoes, he brazenly quotes from Apocalypse Now, Treasure of Sierra Madre and Bridge on the River Kwai. He gives nearly every character a way-too-elaborate back-story -- this one went bankrupt; this one's son killed his mother in childbirth; this one left a Vietnamese concubine bearing a child he's never met; even the fallen comrade story is more complicated then it initially apears. There are characters who appear all too conveniently (an anti-Land mines group), and unexpected obstacles (explosions, animal attacks, snipers) that bring to mind the video-game aspect of 1917. And, not surprisingly, given all this, it runs too long and leaves you somewhat exhausted,

And yet...and yet...it also reminded me just how much I love movies, and how bracing ambition can be even when it manifestly reaches too far. I spent as much of the time exhilarated by Lee's ideas and the scope of his story as I did panting trying to keep up with it. There's some superb dialogue along the way, some beautifully staged action sequences, and a bunch of fine performances. Chadwick Boseman has abbreviated screen time, but his strong persona registers enough to be the sort of character the others would remember so vividly for so long. Clarke Peters is, as always, a powerful quiet presence -- he seems to be stepping into Morgan Freeman's niche: the soft-spoken African-American who can be counted on for rationality coupled with strength.

The performance most will remember is Delroy Lindo's, both because it's big as all get-out, and because it contains many memorable small moments. I'm not sure the entirety of the performance fits together -- it kind of epitomizes the movie, being often just right and occasionally too much. But I'd be very surprised if he weren't in the conversation for acting prizes the next time such things are given out. (And we can look forward to a spirited "lead or supporting" argument.)

Bottom line: it's on Netflix, most of us can watch it for free and without COVID-risk. Do it. Even if you hate it, there could also be things about it you love. It reminds us of all we've been missing since theatres closed last March,
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