In Netflix’s “Da 5 Bloods,” Spike Lee takes his audience on a journey across the decades, putting a spotlight on the Black veteran experience in a way few filmmakers ever have.
The film follows four Vietnam War veterans who call themselves Da Bloods — Otis (Clarke Peters), Eddie (Norm Lewis), Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) and Paul (an absolutely gripping Delroy Lindo) — as they return to Vietnam to retrieve the remains of their fallen comrade and the fifth Blood, Stormin’ Norman (Chadwick Boseman).
Though it might be the most evocative Vietnam War film in recent times, Lee certainly isn’t the first director to capture the Black veteran experience on-screen.
Then, in 1995, two very different films about the Black veteran experience premiered.
The idea that Black American veterans’ battles have extended well beyond their tours of duty was also beautifully captured by Dee Rees in 2017’s “Mudbound,” a story of two families — one Black and one white — stuck together on a rural Mississippi farm.
