How the Vietnam War epicDa 5 Bloodsbecame one of the most ambitious films of his career.
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Hollywoods whitewashing of war is something Lee, 63, has been thinking about for most of his life.
My favorites wereIs Paris Burning?and John FrankenheimersThe Trainwith Burt Lancaster.
But my father would always tell me, We fought in the war too.
Shit was about to go off and those soldiers wouldnt have been shooting the Vietcong either, says Lee.
But that dynamic wasnt new.
We believe in the promise of this country, but were still waiting.
(One week after our interview, George Floyd was killed by the Minneapolis police.)
This is howDa 5 Bloods came together.
So [co-writer] Kevin [Willmott] and I flipped it.
We based Norman on the black squad leaders that were very rare in Vietnam, says Willmott.
He knows how to keep the tone even, says Willmott.
The Vietnam War was an immoral war, says Lee.
I was not going to villainize the Vietcong.
How could I do a film likeBamboozledand then make caricatures of the Vietnamese?
They went back and tried to win a war that they lost in a movie, says Lee.
In reality, that shit did not happen.
It was a casting agent who connected us, Majors says.
I biked down from Harlem to Brooklyn to meet him at his office.
And Im watching it, fool that I am, and I just start crying.
And then Spike tells me about the film: Delroy Lindos going to play your dad.
We shoot in Thailand.
You got a passport?
I go, What?
And they were like, What do you mean you got it?
I was doing the gun training, the formation training.
I ripped a lot of pants.
Heres the thing, says Lee.
And I dislike when films get different actors to play younger versions of the main characters.
Also, makeup or prosthetics wouldve melted in the 100-degree heat.
It just works, says Lee.
These guys are going back in time, but this is how they see themselves.
We did research screenings, and no one made an issue of it.
Hollywood doesnt give audiences enough credit for their intelligence.
Flashback scenes were shot on 16-mm.
reversal film to mimic newsreel footage from the 60s and 70s.
Its how the American public perceived the war.
Also, some of them are in very good shape.
Delroy Lindo swam circles around me in the hotel pool.
Unfortunately, not many cinematically menacing jungles offer drive-through service.
We shot the modern sequences first and then sent everybody away for ten days, says Thomas.
Lindo himself wasnt so sure, though.
Spike sent me the script and told me to tell him what I thought, he says.
But there was that twist and I did not want to play a Trumpite.
So I called Spike and asked if we could just make Paul an archconservative.
I felt it would add some conflict and drama among the group, says Lee.
I called Spike back and said, No, man yeah, I want to play Paul.
On set, Delroy was avid, says Lee.
Hes not voting for that guy, but he did what the role required.
But as soon as Id yell cut, he took the hat off.
It could have been one of those or a combination of them all, he says.
Also, we made this movie B.C.
not Before Christ but Before Corona and Trump hasnt helped himself in [dealing with this] pandemic.
But with all other would-be blockbusters stuck in limbo until multiplexes reopen,Bloodscould be this summers biggest release.
Pre-coronavirus, the director was able to hold four screenings ofDa 5 Bloodsfor black Vietnam vets.
That was the real validation for this film.
Da 5 Bloods will premiere June 12 on Netflix.
