The Fourth of July is, at least on paper, a day when we all come together to celebrate the pride of being an American. In 2024, though, regardless of what you believe, being proud of America is a fraught topic. To be proud of America means different things to different people, and what side you fall on may say a lot about what you ultimately believe.
One of the best ways to celebrate the day, though, is to find a movie that is thoughtful about America and the legacy our nation has built. Netflix has many movies like that to choose from, but Da 5 Bloods may be the ideal way to spend the holiday. Following Black Vietnam War veterans who return to the country decades later in search of buried treasure, the film is as wild as it sounds.
Here are three reasons why it’s the perfect way to spend the holiday. It’s an honest representation of American history Da 5 Bloods is political, but not in the polemical way you might expect. Instead, the movie’s central character is a Black Trump supporter who spends much of the movie sporting a MAGA hat.
Writer and director Spike Lee seems to understand the mounting frustration this man has experienced throughout his life, and why he wants to channel that frustration into tearing everything down. Delroy Lindo’s central performance helps immensely, as does the honest reckoning the movie attempts with the gruesome way Black men were often used as recently as the Vietnam War. It’s plenty entertaining in its own right In addition to being.
