Amazing x 2

   One good thing about the quarantine, with apologies to the Hollywood studios and the movie theaters that are struggling to say the least, is the movies that are coming out online, that we can watch at home. Every Saturday (and a few Friday) night for a while now, I’ve been turning on Netflix or Prime and, from the comfort of my bed, watching some good stuff. I could get used to this (which is surely one reason why the studios and theaters are freaking out)! 

   This past Saturday was no exception, to say the least, after Netflix released Spike Lee’s new opus, Da 5 Guys, on Friday. 

   Lee has made a steady stream of good to excellent and provocative films in the last 30 years or so, and Da 5 Guys is, simply put, amazing.  It’s one of his best and could well be argued to be his best.  It’s at least as great as Do the Right Thing.  Or it will be at least looked back on like we now look back on Do the Right Thing. 

   Da 5 Guys is about 5 Black Vietnam War vets who return to Vietnam to find the body of a fallen comrade and a buried cache of gold bars, and not one minute of its two-and-a-half hours running time drags.  In addition to an engaging, exciting, sometimes tense and thrilling story, Lee packs in loads of commentary and ideas, including some brutal jabs at Trump, and references dozens of movies from Apocolypse Now to Treasure of the Sierra Madre and all sorts of others in between. 

   A couple other notes: It’s way early to be making award predictions, but there will probably be talk about not only hopefully the movie and Lee but also Del Lindo, who plays the volatile, troubled vet who, much to the other’s surprise, voted for and plans to again vote for Trump and unapologetically wears a red MAGA cap (watch out for the very funny commentary that Lee sneaks in). I should also say that there are violent, bloody scenes – not only obviously the combat depictions – not for the feint of heart. 

   Another amazing thing is that this film, with its story about and commenting on Black men having fought for a country in which they’re still struggling to get opportunity and respect, is coming out during this time of massive uprising for racial equality and more civil rights and against police brutality and injustice that particularly affects African-Americans, as well as other minorities.  It’s as if Lee knew months ago that this would all be going down now. 

   Like I said, amazing.