Da 5 Bloods Review: Spike Lee's Dizzying Vietnam War Netflix Film Is Worth the Trip

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorThe relationship between director Spike Lee and composer Terence Blanchard is rooted in collaboration, counting over 15 films together — most recently, “Da 5 Bloods.”“Terence is a great jazz musician and band player,” says Lee. “He brings that wealth of understanding of what music does with colors, shapes and feeling.”Blanchard, who moonlights as a trumpeter, credits the strength of their 30-year relationship to Lee’s self-assurance as an artist.

Casting close calls are endlessly fascinating. What would have happened if Tom Selleck starred in “Indiana Jones?” Or Will Smith as Neo in “The Matrix?” Film fans love to debate what could have been almost as much as what was.

For a long time, Spike Lee has had his finger on the pulse of America. In 1992, he screened Malcolm X for studio execs on the same day that four white cops who brutally beat unarmed Black construction worker Rodney King were acquitted of assault.

Even with decades of acclaimed features and a recent Oscar win, Spike Lee still has to fight for his creative vision. And that fight extends to folks like Netflix, a studio notorious for spending large amounts of cash to please its filmmakers.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorCinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel was working on Sam Hargrave’s “Extraction” in Asia when Spike Lee called to ask him to work on “Da 5 Bloods.” Sigel, who is known for his work on such diverse films as “Three Kings,” “The Usual Suspects” and “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and had previously collaborated with Lee only on commercials, was unsure whether he’d have ample time to prep, but he wasn’t going to say no.

the Spike Lee-directed version of Broadway show “David Byrne’s American Utopia.”The film will launch on the premium cable network later this year and comes after Deadline revealed the filmed version of the show in January.The Broadway production, which opened October 2019 and ran through February 16 at the Hudson Theatre, features the Talking Heads cofounder accompanied by 11 musicians from around the world performing songs from Byrne’s 2018 album “American Utopia” as well as hits from his

Peter White Television EditorHBO has landed the Spike Lee-directed version of Broadway show David Byrne’s American Utopia.The film will launch on the premium cable network later this year and comes after Deadline revealed the filmed version of the show in January.The Broadway production, which opened October 2019 and ran through February 16 at the Hudson Theatre, features the Talking Heads cofounder accompanied by 11 musicians from around the world performing songs from Byrne’s 2018 album

You would think that Spike Lee wouldn’t have much trouble finding a studio to finance and distribute his films. After decades of films that have been nominated for all sorts of awards and coming off his first Oscar win, it would stand to reason that a filmmaker would have a line of studios hoping to work with him.

the Oscar winner has four black men in their sixties meet up for a happy present-day reunion at a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.The buds — called the “Bloods” — are back to their former battlefield, we learn, to retrieve the remains of the fifth “Blood,” Stormin’ Norman (“Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman, in flashback).So, this must be Lee’s reckoning-with-’Nam film, you think.

Vietnam vets who return to the battlefield site for reasons ... well, we’ll get to the reasons.

Few comebacks have been as satisfying as what 2018’s “BlacKkKlansman” wrought. The film netted the esteemed and oft-misunderstood director Spike Lee a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, reminding many of his potent cinematic eye.

Also Read: Spike Lee Calls George Floyd and 'Do The Right Thing' Character Radio Raheem 'Brothers' in Short Film (Video)Sprawling and expansive at more than two-and-a-half hours, “Da 5 Bloods” is Lee’s Vietnam epic, a journey up the river with more than a few nods to “Apocalypse Now.” (Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” even shows up at one point.) The more it has on its mind, the better it is, because the vitality of Lee’s filmmaking lies not in the way he shows these guys hiking through the

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticWith “Da 5 Bloods,” Spike Lee follows his long overdue Oscar win for “BlacKkKlansman” by revealing a side of the Vietnam story that’s seldom told. Through the Trojan horse of a treasure-hunt adventure movie, the director explores the mindset of Black soldiers who fought for their country at a time when African Americans were being oppressed at home.

After the Oscar-winning success of BlacKkKlansman, what filmmaker Spike Lee opted to follow it up with always always going to be inherently fascinating. After all, that movie had won Lee his first Academy Award.

"My brother, the world has changed," Spike Lee started his conversation with Jimmy Fallon on Monday night's edition of The Tonight Show. Though the Da 5 Bloods filmmaker was referring in the moment to the fact that he and the late-night host were speaking over video chat rather than at The Tonight Show's 30 Rock studios, he could have just as easily been discussing the protests over racist police brutality and systemic racism that have swept the U.S.

Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week. MOVIES “Da 5 Bloods”: It’s always the right time for a Spike Lee joint and thankfully Netflix has his latest ready to debut Friday.

Shortly after the video was released of George Floyd being killed by a police officer and protests began to rise up around the US, Spike Lee released a short clip editing together the videos of Floyd and Eric Garner being killed alongside a similar scene in the director’s own “Do The Right Thing,” asking the question, “When will history stop repeating itself?” In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, Lee talked about the connection between his 1989 acclaimed film and the recent racist

«Will history stop repeating itself?» Spike Lee asks as much at the start of a minute-and-a-half-long short film he shared on Twitter, which splices clips from his 1989 film,, with footage of the police killings of Eric Garner in 2014 and George Floyd in May.