— Spike Lee's ballsy adventure saga strewn with pungent commentary on the eternally festering issue of race in America — a scene destined to launch a thousand GIFs shows the surviving members of the title's soul brotherhood boogying in formation through a Ho Chi Minh City nightclub to Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give It Up.
In one of several time jumps back to 1971, Stormin' Norman , the First Infantry Bloods' squad and spiritual leader, advances the argument. Justifying a plan to "repossess" a chest of gold pulled from the wreckage of a U.S. military aircraft, he traces the line of black sacrifice for white America all the way back to Crispus Attucks, the first casualty of the Boston Massacre in 1770, and even further, to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619.
Paul , Otis , Melvin and Eddie reunite in Ho Chi Minh City, their hugs and dap handshakes showing that the decades apart haven't loosened their blood bond. Even the eyebrow-raising disclosure that Paul is an unapologetic supporter of "President Fake Bone Spurs" gets a pass.
The surfacing friction between Paul and Otis as trust issues intrude on the mission, along with long-running communication difficulties, breakthroughs and new setbacks in the troubled relationship between Paul and David, provide a sturdy emotional anchor. The legacy of damaged connections between black men and their sons is another aspect of Lee's canvas.
In a couple of highly effective interludes used to amplify the sociopolitical context, Lee and Willmott bring in Hanoi Hannah , the Vietnamese radio DJ who broadcast in English to American G.I.s. The split-screen visual of the men's faces as she reports on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the resulting rioting at home is devastating. Hannah also imparts the biting statistic that black Americans represent 11 percent of the U.S.