Millennials Talk Cinema: Vietnam War movies get schooled

Two high-profile movies by star directors have just been released on major streaming platforms after their initially-planned theatrical runs were sadly side-tracked by worldwide theater closures. In some ways, the change might have been for the best. Though Spike Lee (“Do the Right Thing,” “BlacKkKlansman”) had no way of knowing that his Vietnam War drama “Da 5 Bloods” would open amidst worldwide marches to denounce racism and the murder people of color, there is no doubt that the timing of the film’s release could not have been more impactful. And with so many folks at home watching films on platforms like Netflix – on which Lee’s film premiered last Friday – it’s probably that far more people watched the film over the last few days than ever would have or could have had theaters still been open. Which is to say that “Da 5 Bloods,” Lee’s biggest budgeted film to date, and among his most ambitious and rawly personal, is well-positioned to become a significant part of the vital current conversation about race, America’s past, and our country’s long, entrenched history of treating black lives, in uniform and out, as disposable.

In the case of director Kenneth Branagh (“Thor,” “Murder on the Orient Express”) and his anemic adaptation of the popular “Artemis Fowl” books, Disney possibly dodged a film critic and box office thrashing, by skipping theaters and putting the film directly in front of stay-at-home families eager for something, anything new to watch.

Here’s what a pair of reviewers from our pool of local film writers have to say about these two new films.

‘DA 5 BLOODS’

Netflix

Katie Wigglesworth

“Da 5 Bloods” is good. Really good.

It’s good in ways that are subtle and explicit and hard to describe without spoiling the movie, which I highly recommend you immediately add to your Netflix queue. Spike Lee’s tale of black Vietnam veterans returning to the country to recover the body of their fallen squad leader – among other things – is ambitious, earnest, masterfully creative, and absolutely engrossing.

By the conclusion of the film’s 2.5-hour runtime I was absolutely exhausted – but hours later I was still energetically mulling it over.

“Da 5 Bloods” is a masterclass in collaboration. Starting out as a script written by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo in 2013 that, after some initial interest seemed trapped in production purgatory, eventually made its way to the hands of director-screenwriter Spike Lee. Lee says that the work put in by Bilson and De Meo was good, but he noted that it, like so many Vietnam era pieces, it featured white veterans. So he and Kevin Willmott – who had previously collaborated on 2018’s Oscar winning “BlacKkKlansman” – teamed up for a devastatingly powerful rewrite to tell a story centering on the experiences of the black men who comprised 32% of American forces during the war.

All the performances are excellent, main and supporting cast alike, but it’s impossible to come away from this movie not stunned by Delroy Lindo. Paul (Lindo) is a complicated man, deeply affected by decades of unresolved trauma. He’s impulsive, at times infuriating, deeply flawed, but also so well written, and honestly and empathetically portrayed by Lindo. He is never reduced to a stereotype or a stock character, but Lee and Lindo play with those preconceived concepts to open Paul’s story in ways that may surprise people. Also deserving of a shout-out is Jonathan Majors (“The Last Black Man in San Francisco”) who plays Paul’s estranged son David, tagging along on the recovery tour to spend time with his emotionally distanced father, before there’s no more time to spend.

I can’t sing this movie’s praises without mentioning the fascinating and evocative work of cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel. “Da 5 Bloods” has not one, but three different aspect ratios that alternate to frame the movie in specific and significant ways. The flashbacks to ‘60s-era Vietnam are all in a 3x4 ratio and shot on 16 mm film – simulating documentary footage of the war while instilling a more archival atmosphere of the men’s lived experiences. Pairing beautifully with this is the decision to use the same actors regardless of time period. There is no de-aging and no recasting of younger look-alikes in “Da 5 Bloods,” and the result is brilliant from a visual and narrative perspective. It never felt off to me, seeing the same men decades earlier but not a day younger, and in fact sent home a very poignant and purposeful point – that these men never left Vietnam, never left the war.

“Da 5 Bloods” is an entertaining action-adventure that is never afraid to delve into straight-forward commentary on mental health, the subjugation of black men, American Imperialism, race relations in Vietnam and America, and the complicated web of the war that contributed to the fragmentation of a generation still echoing in the corners of the world it touched to this day. It is a brilliant piece of filmmaking that refuses to be passive, demands to be seen, and demands to be heard.

‘ARTEMIS FOWL’

Disney+

Anderson Templeton

“Artemis Fowl,” the renowned young adult book series, has officially been “adapted” into a big budget Disney film directed by Kenneth Branagh. The movie went live on the Disney+ streaming platform last Friday, after coronavirus theater closures stalled plans to release the film theatrically in May.

In short, “Artemis Fowl” is about a cocky, Irish boy-genius who comes from a long line of criminal masterminds dedicated to protecting the underground fairy realms. The film significantly simplifies the first book by creating a narrative in which young Artemis’s father is kidnaped by a mysterious creature, demanding that the boy locate a powerful Faye relic his father is in possession of. After some initial denial that magical creatures exist, Artemis eventually uses his crafty ways to devise a plan to kidnap a fairy, and negotiate with their people.

Of course, things get complicated.

If I was twelve and hadn’t read the books, I would absolutely go wild for this film. It is packed with action, magic, humor, and has some very entertaining performances by Judi Dench, Josh Gad, and Colin Farrell. On the other hand, when I was twelve, I did read the books and unfortunately, the “movie Artemis” is not the “book Artemis.” The film feels more like “Artemis Fowl” reimagined rather than adapted. So many things have been changed to match Disney's style as well, as for the cinema. For example, Disney felt the urge to introduce Artemis with a surfing montage in order to make the film appeal to as many kids as possible.

There is a bizarre and frustrating epidemic of movie studios turning nerdy boy protagonists from best-selling novels into athletic cool kids in their movie adaptations. Why can't studios like Disney and Nickelodeon just accept that not all boys are athletic, and that that's okay?

This story is about a boy who uses brains over brawn, and it sold millions of books, so why can’t Disney trust that?

Artemis Fowl surfing … pshhhh … it's ridiculous.

Overall though, if you have zero familiarity with the books, and are in fact a child, then Disney’s “Artemis Fowl” is going to rock your world.

But for fans of the book series, grab a stress ball and a box of tissues.