Spike Lee’s highly-rated Vietnam War film Da 5 Bloods gets a subpar accuracy score from historian Bill Allison. Released in 2020, the movie follows four African American war veterans who return to Vietnam, attempting to locate the remains of their former leader, along with some previously buried gold. The cast of Da 5 Bloods includes Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Jonathan Majors, and the late Chadwick Boseman, in one of his final roles. After its premiere, the film earned praise, particularly for its performances, receiving a nomination at the 27th SAG Awards.
In a recent video from Insider, Allison looked at Da 5 Bloods and discussed the inaccuracy of one scene, rating it 5 out of 10. Check out the clip below:
Allison explained that a helicopter wouldn’t stand still amid constant gunshots, but added that the Viet Cong’s decision to leave made sense. He also estimated the number of African American soldiers in Vietnam, revealing that they “were in combat units and also casualties at a rate, a percentage much higher than their percentage of the population in the United States.” Read more of Allison’s quote below:
Ok. Challenge flag. With that helicopter coming in and staying stationary for so long in that valley in direct fire, right? They would not have done that. There would’ve been covering birds, helicopters around to assist if needed. Because if you stay still, somebody with a, I don’t know, a rocket-propelled grenade, or an RPG, as they call it, is going to swack that helicopter. And sure enough, that’s what happens.
You know they’re Viet Cong. They’re not uniformed. That’s how you can tell. PAVN would always have a uniform. Women serving with the Viet Cong, yes, absolutely. Gender did not matter in this war for the Viet Cong or the PAVN, the North Vietnamese. For them, this is an existential threat. They’re fighting for their survival. One thing that’s good here is the VC withdraw, because they must realize that air support’s going to be called in to support the guys on the ground now. And now you’ve got two sets of wreckage to deal with. So they gotta get the heck out of there.
The whole premise of the film, of Spike Lee’s movie here, is to show the experience of African American soldiers in Vietnam both as combatants, but also as veterans of the war returning to Vietnam. At least 300,000 if not more African Americans served in the war. In the early years of the conflict, especially ‘65, ‘66, African Americans were in combat units and also casualties at a rate, a percentage much higher than their percentage of the population in the United States. And this did not go unnoticed. People like Martin Luther King and others began speaking out on this. And by 1968, ‘69, this had actually kind of leveled out.
How Accurate Is Da 5 Bloods?
The sequence Allison looked at occurred during the movie’s first flashback, observing the group of soldiers known as the “Bloods” who, upon reaching a fallen military C-47, were attacked by opposing forces. A United States trooper ends up dead and, as Allison pointed out, the tail of their helicopter is destroyed, a fault that likely could have been prevented with additional support. The rest of that scene portrays more ground-level combat, with American and Vietnamese casualties, as each side continues to fire their weapons before the enemy retreats.
While Da 5 Bloods isn’t based on a real story, it does demonstrate what Black military personnel went through, revealing what fighting was like during the Vietnam War, and features instances of racial injustice as well. Early in the film, Otis (Peters) explains that African American troops were put on the front lines, and many were killed. It also references actual people/events, including Milton L. Olive III and the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, someone who was against the war.
It’s worth mentioning that Lee was inspired, in part, by Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans, which touches on the views of various Black men, as they relate to the war. Regardless of whether the combat scenes in Da 5 Bloods are accurate, it is interesting to see how the director focused on those experiences.
Da 5 Bloods
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Da 5 Bloods is a drama/war film written and directed by Spike Lee. The film sees four African American Vietnam War veterans return several decades later to the country to find their commanding officer’s remains and a bounty of gold and treasure they hid away during their tour of duty. The film chronicles the group traveling through the country and dealing with insurgents as they cross treacherous terrain in search of the past.
- Director
- Spike Lee
- Release Date
- June 12, 2020
- Studio(s)
- Netflix
- Distributor(s)
- Netflix
- Writers
- Paul De Meo , Kevin Willmott , Danny Bilson , Spike Lee
- Cast
- Jonathan Majors , Isiah Whitlock Jr. , Clarke Peters , Paul Walter Hauser , Melanie Thierry , Jean Reno , Chadwick Boseman , Van Veronica Ngo , Delroy Lindo , Norm Lewis , Giancarlo Esposito , Jasper Pääkkönen
- Runtime
- 154 minutes
- Budget
- $35–45 million
