Da 5 — Bloods

Spike Lee, as always, refuses a linear, comfortable style. The film jumps between aspect ratios (widescreen for the past, boxy for the present, 16mm for the war flashbacks), time periods, and musical genres. The soundtrack is a living entity, mixing Marvin Gaye’s soulful pleas ("What’s Going On") with the bombastic orchestral score of a classic adventure film.

Paul represents the unprocessed poison of the war. He suffers from PTSD, survivor’s guilt, and a deep-seated fury at being abandoned by his country. His political anger is misdirected—he supports the same system that sacrificed him—but his pain is achingly real. As the group treks deeper into the jungle, the gold (a literal and metaphorical treasure) corrupts their brotherhood, and Paul’s psyche unravels. His final, staggering walk into the jungle—a reverse "walk to freedom"—is a modern masterpiece of cinematic grief, a man finally surrendering to the ghosts he has carried for half a century. Da 5 Bloods

The heart and soul of the film is Paul, played with volcanic, tragic intensity by Delroy Lindo. Paul is a MAGA-hat-wearing, paranoid, and deeply traumatized veteran. He is not a hero; he is a broken man consumed by guilt and rage. Lee uses a daring, Brechtian device: in moments of extreme stress, Paul hallucinates a younger version of himself, and he delivers soliloquies directly to the camera, breaking the fourth wall. Spike Lee, as always, refuses a linear, comfortable style

Da 5 Bloods is ultimately about the cyclical nature of violence. The Vietnam War never ended for these men; it simply changed location. The jungles of Vietnam become a mirror for the streets of America, where Black bodies continue to be disposable. The film was released in the summer of 2020, amidst the global protests following the murder of George Floyd. That timing was accidental, but it was prophetic. The film’s final images—of Paul’s sacrifice, of the Bloods finally laying Norman to rest, and of the ever-present, unforgiving jungle—suggest that true peace is impossible without truth, restitution, and a reckoning with history. Paul represents the unprocessed poison of the war

Crucially, the flashbacks to the Vietnam War feature the younger actors (including a radiant Chadwick Boseman) alongside the older actors—no de-aging CGI. This choice creates a disorienting, ghostly effect. The past is not behind them; it is walking right next to them. Stormin' Norman serves as the moral compass, a revolutionary figure who quotes MLK and Huey Newton, arguing that Black soldiers should be fighting for liberation, not imperialism. His death is the original sin the Bloods must atone for.