Lee's second foray into the war genre, Bloods, is only the third major release in the last quarter-century to explore the Vietnam Conflict through the eyes of African-American soldiers. However, the story draws more inspiration from much older films (1948's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and 1979's Apocalypse Now) than 1995's The Walking Dead and Dead Presidents.
After discovering a cache of gold bars, squad members Norman Holloway, Paul, Otis, Eddie and Melvin resolve to somehow get the treasure back to the U.S. for the express purpose of financing the Civil Rights Movement. However, when "Stormin' Norm" is killed-in-action, the group abandons the gold and the plan. But 40 years later, the surviving veterans return to Vietnam with a two missions: recover Norm's remains and the gold. Along the way, the men face their fractured relationships, fatherhood, their pasts and themselves. Paul, suffering from severe PTSD and racked with guilt over Norm's death, is an unlikely Trump-supporter at war with himself; Eddie, who made it big after the war, lost a fortune and is struggling to hide that fact; and Otis, reconnects with an old flame who never told him that she bore his daughter.
Like 1999's Three Kings before it, Bloods is superficially about a group of soldiers intent on absconding with gold discovered in enemy territory. But Lee's Vietnam story is really an examination of the Black man's place in the American military, both during and after war. And appropriately enough, the film casts an eye at yesterday and today.
Originally Posted 6/14/20
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