The forgotten man is a familiar archetype in American history. President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously made reference during a 1932 radio address, speaking to those at the economy’s bottom rung whom the New Deal would revitalize. Donald Trump weaponized it as he entered the White House, galvanizing blue-collar whites who not only felt disenfranchised by a rapidly changing America, but simmered with bitterness as a result. Spike Lee, meanwhile, has made the various injustices America has enacted against Black people central to his work. His latest film, Da 5 Bloods, emphasizes just how little America values Black people by designating Black veterans as the forgotten.

Be it Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, or Born on the Fourth of July, none of Hollywood’s most venerated depictions of the Vietnam War have addressed the horrors Black soldiers experienced both during (including racism in the military) and after. If they survived what can be characterized only as a failure at the hands of five American presidents, they faced unemployment, vilification, and insufficient support from a government they risked their lives for. Preston A. Whitmore ll’s The Walking Dead and Allen and Albert Hughes’s Dead Presidents, both released in 1995, made attempts, but only the latter explored the abandonment many Black vets felt after fighting (and dying at disproportionate rates compared to their white counterparts) for rights they didn’t have in America. The Civil Rights Act wasn’t signed into law until July 1964; the Voting Rights Act didn’t receive the same treatment until August 1965. Out on Netflix this past Friday, Da 5 Bloods is part reunion, part war epic, and part treasure hunt. It tells the story of Otis (Clarke Peters), Eddie (Norm Lewis), Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), and Paul (Delroy Lindo), four veterans who return to Vietnam after nearly 50 years to recover the remains of their gallant squad leader, Stormin’ Norman (Chadwick Boseman), and the millions in gold they buried in the jungle. They’re later joined by Paul’s son, David (Jonathan Majors), who forces his way into the action. The film stresses that time and unhealed wounds can strain seemingly unbreakable bonds and corrode people from the inside.

[Read Julian Kimble's piece on Spike Lee's latest film, Da 5 Bloods, which explores the forgotten Black Vietnam veteran.]