Movie review
June 12, 2020 · 155 min · R
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Da 5 Bloods follows four African American Vietnam War veterans who return to Vietnam decades later to recover their squad leader's remains and a hidden stash of gold bars from a crashed CIA plane. The narrative centers on their personal traumas, betrayals, and the lasting impact of the war on Black soldiers who faced racism from fellow Americans while serving. Explicit political dialogue, historical flashbacks highlighting military discrimination, a modern Trump-supporting veteran character, and an ending that directs gold proceeds to a Black Lives Matter organization make the identity and racial justice framing central and audience-visible throughout.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Da 5 Bloods.
Woke representation / casting
All principal veteran roles cast with Black actors to portray an African American squad; this fits the story premise and historical reality of Black soldiers in Vietnam with no mismatch, unearned dominance, or audience-visible forced diversity signaling.
Woke political dialogue
Recurring explicit dialogue on racism in the U.S. military, the hypocrisy of Black soldiers fighting for a country that denies them rights, MLK's assassination, and modern political divides including Trump support; these beats directly advance activist framing.
Identity-driven story themes
The core story engine is Black male identity, brotherhood under oppression, shared racial trauma, and historical reclamation; character arcs and conflicts are structured around processing American racism and solidarity rather than neutral war adventure.
Western institutional / cultural critique
U.S. military and society are portrayed as systemically racist and hypocritical toward Black citizens, with history whitewashed; the narrative reframes the war through a present-day racial justice lens that ties past events to 2020 identity politics and BLM.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant – original screenplay with no adaptations, race/gender swaps, or alterations to established characters or canon.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Minimal backlash treating the film as pushing woke or activist content; mainstream and social media response was largely positive or focused on timeliness, with only scattered artistic complaints about heavy-handedness rather than widespread "too woke" or propaganda accusations.
Creator track record context
Spike Lee's decades-long pattern of race-centric, activist-framed projects (including recent Oscar-winning work on racism) directly aligns with this film's explicit identity emphasis and public marketing.
Production
