Things have been pretty barren on the movie front of late, but Netflix dropped one of the biggest critical hits of the year so far last Friday. Oscar-winning director Spike Lee has teamed up with the streaming giant to make Da 5 Bloods, a war drama following five Vietnam vets as they return to the country years after their service to search for their dead squad leader and the riches they hid and left behind.
Not only is it a hit with critics, but Da 5 Bloods has also soared to the top of the Netflix charts over the weekend. As things stand, Lee’s film is sitting at number one on the Top 10 movies list on the streaming site, as well as nabbing the top spot on the overall Top 10 list to boot.
There are probably a number of reasons why it’s been so successful. Of course, the critical acclaim can’t hurt and the fact that it’s a new movie when we’ve had so few of them of late is a plus. Besides that, though, with its predominantly black cast and black filmmaker behind it, Da 5 Bloods is clearly exactly the sort of content people want to watch in the midst of the BLM movement.
The titular five bloods are played by Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis and Isiah Whitlock Jr., respectively. Marvel star Chadwick Boseman also appears in the key role of Stormin’ Norman, the gang’s deceased leader, in flashbacks. At last check, the movie sports an impressive 88% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 81 on Metacritic.
Lee’s spoken about how hard it was to get the film made as no studios would back it, but it looks like it definitely found the right home at Netflix and couldn’t have arrived at a more appropriate or more significant time. It’ll also be interesting to see how Da 5 Bloods fares at next year’s Oscars, seeing as Lee’s last movie, BlacKkKlansman, landed itself six major nominations. Could he be in with a shot of winning Best Picture this time? Perhaps.