It’s difficult for some Black men to retrace the steps of the past, but what happens when brotherhood, memories of war and treasure are involved? That’s the question posed by Da 5 Bloods, Spike Lee’s latest Netflix project.
The movie finds four veterans, Paul (Delroy Lindo), Otis (Clarke Peters), Eddie (Norm Lewis) and Melvin (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.), on a complicated journey to find the remains of their fallen squad leader (played in flashbacks by Chadwick Boseman) and gold they buried in Vietnam many years ago. The men are accompanied by Paul’s son, played by Jonathan Majors (The Last Black Man in San Francisco).
During this adventure the brothers confront their trauma and the ravages of the Vietnam War.
Lee, whose BlacKKKlasnman won 2019’s Academy Award for Best Screenplay, has been teasing Da 5 Bloods on Instagram for a few weeks, but Netflix dropped the official trailer today.
The two-minute-plus clip is a mix of past and present, featuring protests, old-school Vietnam footage and the now seasoned band of brothers doing a two-step at the aptly titled Apocalypse Now club. The 1966 hit “Time Has Come Today” by the Chambers Brothers plays over the trailer.
Always one to do it for the culture, Lee mentioned on Instagram that the artwork for Bloods was created by “the great Emory Douglas, who was the minister of culture for the Black Panther Party.”
Da Five Bloods debuts June 12 on Netflix.