FILM REVIEW: DA 5 BLOODS

With Da 5 Bloods, Spike Lee has made one of his most powerful and thematically complex films. Da 5 Bloods is not only an effort to give typically suppressed minority voices in war films a much more prominent role, but it also deals with such issues as intergenerational conflict, family strife, and the evolving nature of social change from the 1960s to the current era. Stylistically, Lee employs varying film stocks and aspect ratios to tell a dynamic and compelling story about how war can destroy a person and a country, but also result in much needed reform for a better future.

Opening in modern times, Da 5 Bloods is about four African-American Vietnam War vets who return to Vietnam as older adults on a mission to find the remains of their fallen squad leader Norman (Chadwick Boseman), and also to locate a buried chest of gold bars that they left behind during the war. The four veterans are Paul (Delroy Lindo), Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), Otis (Clarke Peters), and Eddie (Norm Lewis), and the main focus of the film is on Paul and his inability to completely resolve his post-traumatic stress disorder from after the war. Paul's estranged college aged son David (Jonathan Majors) joins the squad on their journey, along with Vinh (Johnny Tri Nguye), their Vietnamese guide.  

One of the most important aspects of Da 5 Bloods is Lee's decision to cast minorities (African-Americans as well as Asians) in leading roles. There's the aforementioned African-American leads, who all give powerfully nuanced performances, but there's also the Asian roles that Lee gives important roles to. Throughout the film, Lee cuts to Hanoi Hannah (Van Veronica Ngo), a disc jokey who uses her radio show to voice her support for the African-American soldiers fighting in Vietnam. Otis visits his former girlfriend Tien (Le Y Lan), a savvy and successful businesswoman, who it is revealed has a now adult daughter with Otis. The guide Vinh is portrayed as a strong and confident man who provides a steady hand for the squad during their journey.

By doing this, Lee is showing the interconnected cultural and at times personal (Otis, Tien, and their mixed-race daughter) connections between both African-Americans and Vietnamese. Both of these races were caught in an American-led conflict that sought to oppress them and destroy their lives. Da 5 Bloods, with its portraits of minority characters trying to rebuild their lives after the devastating Vietnam war, is Lee's attempt to empower those who were formerly forgotten and exploited by colonialist and imperialist forces. 

The Vietnam war was ultimately an American venture that was supported by French colonialist, who viewed Vietnam as being a country they wanted to conquer for their own. This aspect of the war is cleverly symbolized by the character of Desroche (Jean Reno), a morally shady French businessman who has volunteered to help the soldiers to illegally export their buried treasure safely out of Vietnam, although the soldiers continuously question his ulterior motives. Near the end of the film, we see Desroche wearing a Make America Great Hat, and he is purposefully made up to look like a carbon copy of Donald Trump. Without giving anything away, Desroche is portrayed as seeming to be more interested in maintaing power than helping the former soldiers. Lee is revealing how the oppression of minorities by Western powers still continues in the modern era, far after the Vietnam War has ended.

The hate fueled by the Trump administration is revealed in the lead character of Paul, who is an ardent Trump supporter who views outsiders (including the Vietnamese) as hostile forces, and Paul's every action seems driven by this animosity. By contrast, the other ex-soldiers are revealed as being more open-minded and accepting of others, and even eventually welcome in a rag-tag group of people from other ethnicities into their circle. Indeed, the last half of Da 5 Bloods reveals the separate paths Paul and his companions take in their journey; Paul becomes consumed by hatred and an indomitable need for power over others, while the other members of the squadron work together with an ethnically diverse group of outsiders to maintain peace and harmony. 

It's no coincidence that Da 5 Bloods culminates with Paul alone and separated from his group, while his racially eclectic companions end up in a tranquil Buddhist temple. This schism reflects the state of modern day America under Trump, with half the country living in a state of constant loathing towards outsiders, and the other half living in harmony with different races and genders. This concept of peaceful inter-race relations is best exemplified with Da 5 Bloods' subplot of Otis reuniting with Tien, and finally meeting and welcoming in his mixed race daughter into his life. Lee reveals that this state of harmony is also generational, as Paul's son David ends up siding with and being accepted by the more peace-loving group.

All of these thematic concerns would not work if Lee had made a film that wasn't aesthetically accomplished, and Da 5 Bloods is also a major cinematic achievement. Lee blends various styles of filmmaking, mixing newsreel footage from historical sources, along with different frame rates and film stocks, to create an astonishing and powerfully effective montage of race relations and generational conflict from the 1960s Civil Rights era, all the way up to the modern day Black Lives Matter movement. Da 5 Bloods is an urgent call for peace and love in a modern era that has become consumed with xenophobia and hate under a President that stokes these malicious flames. By connecting the current era with the turmoil of the past, Lee is guiding us into a future hopefully filled with more love and understanding for our fellow human beings. 

  

FILM REVIEW: EL PEPE--A SUPREME LIFE

Throughout his career, Emir Kusturca has always been drawn to stories about utopian dreamers and outlaws, so it's no surprise that he would make El Pepe: A Supreme Life (2018), a documentary about former Uruguayan President Jose "Pepe" Mujica.  Like the charismatic protagonists from Kusturica's films like Underground and Black Cat, White Car, Pepe Mujica was a revolutionary who worked from the margins of society to upend the dominant social order.  And, as in his previous films, El Pepe: A Supreme Life is very much a celebration of life and the human spirit amidst seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

El Pepe: A Supreme Life was filmed after Pepe Mujica retired from his Presidency, which lasted from 2010 to 2015.  As the President of Uruguay, Mujica was known as a plain-spoken "man of the people" and social rights reformer; he was able to reduce the national poverty rate from 40% to 11%, the unemployment rate from 13% to 7%, and he raised the minimum wage by 250%. Before his became President, Mujica was a guerilla fighter as a member of the MLN-Tupamaros movement during the 1960s and 1970s, when he fought against the authoritarian Presidency of Jorge Pacheco Areco. During this period, Mujica met Lucia Topolansky, a fellow revolutionary fighter who would become Mujica's lifelong companion and partner (Topolansky would go on to serve as the Vice President of Uruguay from 2017 to 2020). As a result of his guerilla activity, Mujica was eventually aprehended by the authorities and spent over 10 years in prison.

All of this biographical detail is covered in Kusturica's documentary, as he mixes archival footage with modern day recollections of his life by Mujica himself.  As the film opens, we see Kusturica and Mujica sitting outside Mujica's garden, as Mujica silently prepares a drink for the two of them. Indeed, what makes El Pepe such a fascinating film is Kusturica's combination of intimate personal details about the post-Presidential life of Mujica, with narration about his fascinating guerilla years and rise to the Presidency.

We see Mujica reflect on his regrets, such as never having had the opportunity to have his own children, as well as his thoughts on the state of the modern world, which he sees as being consumed by capitalism and greed. By following Mujica around in his daily life, such as visiting the construction and eventual opening of housing and a new school for those living in poverty, Kusturica and Mujica himself invite us as viewers into his altruistic worldview. For Mujica, money is not important, as he donates 90% of his post-Presidential salary to efforts to help out the poor.  Instead, what he values most, and what Kusturica himself does also in his own films, is a vision for a more equitable sense of community on a global level.

After his own country of Yugoslavia was torn apart by the Bosnian War during the 1990s, Kusturica became an exile from his own country after many accused his film Underground of being pro-Serbian propaganda.  Since then, Kusturica has tried to regain a sense of belonging in his native homeland by building his own village in Serbia.  This village, named Kustendorf, was created as a utopian vision of (in the words of Kusturica himself), "an open place with cultural diversity which sets up against globalization."  In this sense, we can see why Kusturica was drawn to creating a documentary about Mujica, as he saw a fellow utopian visionary in the former President of Uruguay.

Like the history of Yugolslavia itself, Kusturica saw Mujica's ascension to the Presidency as a long and arduous path to heal a country torn apart by violent strife.  And, after trying his best to unite the various factions of his country into one united whole, Mujica spent his post-Presidential years continuing his utopian vision of the world with his efforts to help out those living in poverty in Uruguay.  Throughout El Pepe, Kusturica keeps the camera at a deeply intimate and close level, allowing us as viewers to become fully engulfed in the unique and inviting society that Mujica is creating before our own eyes.

Throughout his tumultous life, the one constant in Mujica's life was his lifelong partner Topolansky, an extraordinary woman who was not only Mujica's political adviser and confidant, but also his soulmate.  This is the most touching aspect of El Pepe, as Kusturica reveals the deep love and connection the couple have for each other, from their early years as guerilla fighters in the 1960s, through their years as the leaders of Uruguay, and into their twilight years as an older couple enjoying each other's company.

El Pepe ends with a very moving visit Topolansky and Mujica pay to a restuarant, where they are serenaded by a band, as onlookers watch on.  It is personal and intimate details like this that make El Pepe such a powerful and emotional documentary.  Although it is very much a political portrait of a country and its history, El Pepe is ultimately the story of a man and a woman whose love and respect for each other sustains them into the last years of their lives.  Although both Topolansky and Mujica are still alive at the time of the making of El Pepe, Mujica acknowledges in the film that he feels like his life is coming to an end.  But, with Kusturica's deeply humanistic and poignant film El Pepe, we can only hope that Mujica's message will continue to inspire future generations.