Saturday, April 17, 2021

Da 5 Bloods (2020)

Nominated for Best Original Score     It is ridiculous that this was only nominated for original score.  In a perfect world, Delroy Lindo would have gotten one for best actor, Spike Lee would be up for best director, and Newton Thomas Sigel would have a nom for cinematography.  At the least.  But the Academy decided Judas and the Black Messiah was their one Black film this year.

Four African-American Vietnam vets return to the country that shaped them, ostensibly to find the remains of their fallen squad leader (Chadwick Boseman), but also to recover millions of dollars of gold bullion "lost" by the CIA.  Each man has his own scars and secrets, none more than Paul (Delroy Lindo), whose untreated PTSD threatens to ruin the relationships with his friends and his son, David (Jonathan Majors).

This is an incredibly powerful move about not just the experiences of war, but of expendability.  Lee peppers the film with statistics in a surprisingly fun way for such dark subjects, while Lindo gives a performance that echoes Humphrey Bogart in Treasure of the Sierra Madre, who also didn't get fucking nominated.  It's currently streaming on Netflix.

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