Da 5 Bloods, Spike Lee’s latest film, premiered on Netflix this June. Lee has always been radical about his depiction of the black experience in all of his film projects, whether it’s through one character (Inside Man) or community (Chiraq, Do The Right Thing, School Daze). With Da 5 Bloods, we follow four African American army veterans who re-visit Vietnam to bring their friend’s (the fifth man) bones and gold they found during their tour in the sixties. What they learn when upon their return to Ho Chin Minh City is, while the war has ended, there is still an internal battle that continues to rage within the characters.

Delroy Lindo, who plays Paul, is the emotional center of the story. He represents all the ways Black men have been beaten down by society and the repercussions of that struggle. His inability to show his son, David (Jonathan Majors), any love or affection is depicted with raw emotion. His actions make allow the viewers to empathize with Paul. Showing Black men as vulnerable in the hands of Spike Lee made the viewing necessary and cathartic. The rest of the men, Otis (played by the inimitable Clarke Peters), Eddie (Norm Lewis), and Melvin (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.) round out the different personalities along for this treasure hunt. Finding both Norman’s remains (Chadwick Boseman) and the gold fuels their urgency to make Norman proud. At one point, Norman is named as their “Martin and Malcolm” in relation to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.

Throughout the film, the audience receives history in exposition in relation to all the Black men who died fighting in the Vietnam War. As is the case with a majority of Lee’s films, the heavy-handedness can be distracting at times and also relevant, especially premiering during a time of social unrest and rage over the continued police brutality against Black men. We are entrenched in history illustrated with clips of Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Angela Davis at the very beginning. He places us in time and yet, like his last film, The BlackkKlansman, still very current.

At some point, Paul says, “We fought in an immoral war that wasn’t ours, for rights we didn’t have.” This statement and many other moments in the film point to the injustices Black men faced during the Vietnam War and upon return from service in the United States. On the surface, Da 5 Bloods is about these men reconnecting over a common goal but underneath, it’s about these Black men holding space for each other in ways only they can because of their shared history during the war. The performances resonate, especially Clarke Peters as Otis who served as the cool-headed group leader who kept them on task. Additionally, there was a nice nod to Isiah Whitlock, Jr.’s previous role in The Wire which added levity to an already heavy film.

Ultimately, Da 5 Bloods is a film to be seen, part of the Spike Lee canon. Part of Black history. Part of American history. If you didn’t know what PTSD looked like for folks that weren’t black, now you know. A vast difference from Vietnam films like the fever dream that is Apocalypse Now or Platoon or even Full Metal Jacket, we finally receive a film made for us by us. An opportunity to see how the war affected Black men. Watch. Learn. Watch again and continue educating yourself. This is a necessary film viewing.