V Magazine – Confronting American society in a release that couldn’t have been more timely.
“In the Civil War, 186,000 Black men fought in the military service, and we were promised freedom and we didn’t get it. In World War II, 850,000 people fought, and we were promised freedom, and we didn’t get it. Now here we go with the damn Vietnam War, and we still ain’t gettin’ nothin’ but racist police brutality, et cetera.” (Bobby Seal; Oakland, CA; 1968)
Above is one of the statements that open the latest of Spike Lee joints Da 5 Bloods — a bittersweet comedy poignant with political criticism and social commentary that has premiered exclusively on Netflix earlier this month. Dealing with a subject that is oft-overlooked in American film, it’s a charming chronicle of a male group of friends growing old buried in a sobering statistical subtext: in 1967, 16% of all draftees and 23% of all combat troops were Black, never mind that only 11% of all civilians living in the United States that year were Black.
The story follows a group of four 60-something Black Vietnam War vets (also known as the “Bloods”) making their way back to Vietnam decades later with the intention of recovering the body of their fallen squad leader, Stormin’ Norman — and retrieving a cache of gold bars along the way. Arriving amidst the protests that decry systemic racism, it reminds one of the complex history of race relations in the 1970s, the Vietnam War, and its remnants of aircraft wrecks, landmines, and the general antipathy of Vietnamese people towards Americans. Continue reading »
