Spieley’s works are actually highly recognizable, and labels such as black subjects, political satire, black humor, and realist absurd narratives can all be found in Spieley’s works.
"Blood-sworn Five" is Space Lee's most expensive movie, and Netflix has money! On the online platform, the characters include the familiar "Black Panther" actor Chadwick Bosman, and Jean Renault.
"Blood Five" is the most aesthetically isolated commercial blockbuster so far this year, with 91% of Rotten Tomatoes professional movies and only 66% of the audience popcorn.
Well, you know, black subjects + politics + the current situation in the United States. This film must have caused many professional film critics in the West to score high political scores. We don’t know if there are people who score high for political correctness. There is no evidence. It is not easy to guess with the data, after all, movie reviews are always subjective.
"Blood Five" consists of two timelines, which are intertwined until the end of the film. The background of the story takes place in Vietnam. In order to straighten out the plot, I will sort out the timeline for everyone. For the convenience of everyone’s memory, I will use the names of the characters. It doesn't come as the original film. After all, Space Lee likes to play too many roles in groups.
We all know that the United States was in the quagmire of the Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975. The film used a lot of documentary photos and fragments to review the brutality and cruelty of the war during that period.
The past timeline in the film took place during the Vietnam War, and the frame has also changed back to the traditional 4:3, with retro tones added. During the Vietnam War, blacks accounted for 11% of the U.S. population, but 32% of them were sent. The black soldiers went to the front lines in Vietnam, and there was a voice of "using blacks as cannon fodder".
The Vietnam War was also the climax of the black affirmative movement in the United States. Several elements were combined to form the complex mentality and predicament of the blacks in the Vietnam War.
After watching the movie, I can understand why some people applaud the "Blood Five", because the film is full of many of Spice Lee’s political propositions, and these propositions directly reflect the current political contradictions and frictions in the United States. Of course It's more ironic.
At the same time, it also reflects the sequelae of the Vietnam War on the United States, especially the black people today, and the irreversible trauma to the human mind.
"Blood-sworn Five" is not reconciled to just being a treasure hunt and gunfighting film to perfunctory, but wants to express more.
Seeing this, do you think I want to blow this film? Unfortunately, I am not interested in political criticism, and I don't want to pretend to be a professional film critic.
To my subjective perception, the main story of the script of "The Bloodsworn Five" is a branch of the traditionally outdated Western film structure, which is to set up a golden mission for the protagonists and then start an adventure story. There is really gold in the film and I don’t even bother to replace it with other gold.
It is precisely because the main storyline does not have any tension, and there is indeed no reversal in the back, the film is not irritating for ordinary people who are watching cool films.
Compared with Spy Lee's own work "Black Party Member", how fresh the setting of the film is. A black man imitates the white accent and mixes into the white supreme KKK by calling. The dramatic conflicts and ironic ridicule that occurred here make people find it interesting to listen to the summary of the story.
The lack of power in the main treasure hunt of "Blood Five" is also the reason why the film went on for more than an hour before the gold was actually digged, because the film is not a treasure hunt adventure in the true sense, but the private goods of Spice Lee. piece.
This is also the reason why a large number of people love this film so much, because Space Lee's political expressions and irony are sometimes really fun.
If you look carefully, in fact, every scene in the film can be interpreted, and the film is also full of various thoughts and ridicules of American political culture.
Coupled with the recent Freud incident in the United States, the film has been crowned with current events, especially the black slogan at the end of the film, which made me wonder if it was added while it was hot. It was too appropriate.
But frankly speaking, on the contrary, I am not too impressed by this kind of film that emphasizes the equal rights of black people.
For example, "Escape from Desperate Town", "The Watchman", or Space Lee's "Black Party", are more profound and patient than this "Blood Five", such a naked call for black equality. taste.
And some of the views in this film also made me feel a little uncomfortable as an Asian yellow race.
For example, at the beginning of the film, the old people of the Viet Cong invited the black people to drink, and the grumpy brother said that they might have killed the Leopard brother. But conversely, I think there were many Vietnamese killed by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War.
Then there was a Vietnamese citizen on the boat selling chickens to the grumpy brother. Although it was deliberate harassment, the grumpy brother kept shouting out Vietnamese pigs. This double-standard rule of racial discrimination made me totally unable to empathize with the protagonists.
Of course, there is another deeper interpretation here. These are actually the most realistic expressions of Space Lee, to illustrate that today’s society is such a double standard. In the words of the grumpy brother, "I hate racial discrimination and Vietnamese pig". But the person who said the sentence itself is very problematic.
This also implies that in the United States, in fact, the most discriminated against may not (only) be black people, but people of color who are also discriminated against or are discriminated against, such as Asians.
For the Vietnamese people, regardless of the blacks and whites, you are all Americans who plunged Vietnam into war and caused the Vietnamese people to fratricide. Vietnam does not welcome Americans. Here is another dimension of war thinking.
In the film, there are many scenes that are worth discussing above, and it is precisely because Space Lee wants to add more interpretations, which also makes the rhythm of the film very slow, when the audience wants to see how these old men start an adventure treasure hunt At that time, the plot did not happen for a long time. I talked about a lot of plots that have nothing to do with the main line. People who like these plots like it, and those who don't like it will feel long and smelly.
In the second half of the film, the rhythm gradually returned to the better, and it was more like a fable.
As far as I understand it, everyone in the film has a symbolic meaning. To put it simply, Leopard represents the original voice of the black affirmative period, but the present four people in the film of the evolution of the voice have differentiated into different purposes and consciousness. form.
The treasure hunting group of five represents the United States. If it is subdivided, the grumpy brother belongs to the Republican Party. It can be seen from the hat he wears supporting Trump that "make America great again". Among them, this hat is also used by several different positions. The characters have been worn ironically.
The protagonist uncle is a character who can truly reflect on the war and is more in line with the empathy of the audience.
Let Renault represent the French colonists. Don’t forget that Vietnam has been under French colonization for seven to eighty years, and the French team represents France today. The three have different positions and ideas.
A bigger metaphor. I think the process of the five-member adventure in the jungle is actually a mirror metaphor for the Vietnam War. The five-member represents the United States, the mercenaries represent the Viet Cong, and gold represents a vain and meaningless purpose, ironic. After the meaninglessness of the Vietnam War, what is left in the end is death and hatred.
In the film, the fragments of Brother Grumpy entering the jungle alone and getting lost, alluding to the soldiers who lost themselves in the war, and it also has some religious interpretation. Snake bite, and finally opened his arms and died like Jesus was crucified.
Several clips at the end of the film are too beautiful and very unreal. We can understand it as an illusion, or it can be said to be a real occurrence. There are also previous clips in the film. Except for Leopard, who is young, the other four people use it. For actors of today's age, it's not that Space Lee doesn't use young actors, but deliberately to add more mystery.
In short, I personally think that "Bloodfighting Five" is more picky for the audience, and being able to understand the intention expressed in the film will make you think that the film is a treasure, otherwise it is just a work that is hovering on the pass line.
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