Spike Leeโs โDa 5 Bloodsโ captured a critical point of view lost from film. After decades of producing blockbuster war stories and award-winning battle scene epics, the story of the Black Vietnam veteran has been largely neglected by Hollywood.
Leeโs Netflix film changed that by putting the story of four 60-something veterans reuniting in Vietnam under his lens. After years of distance the men return to the wilderness to honor their fallen squad leader (Chadwick Boseman) and uncover the gold they buried decades ago. But. digging up their past uncovers the pain and grief each soldier has been carrying with them for ages in this time-jumping narrative from Netflix.
However, before โDa 5 Bloodsโ was a Spike Lee joint, it was titled โThe Last Tourโ andย Oliver Stoneย was attached to direct.ย Known for his Vietnam War movies from โPlatoonโ to โBorn on the Fourth of July,โ Stone seemed like a good fit for the film, but there was one problem โ he couldnโt โsolveโ the movie.
Varietyย brought the Oscar-winning NYU film grads together for theย Directors on Directorsย series to discuss the origins of โDa 5 Bloodsโ and its important journey to unearth the real history of Americaโs oppression and systemic racism.
Watch the full interview above.