Almost There: Delroy Lindo in "Da 5 Bloods"
Wednesday, March 24, 2021 at 4:00PM 
Last week, in the aftermath of the Oscar nominations, I asked you, dear readers, to vote on which performance should get an "Almost There" treatment. Of the fifteen possibilities, your choice was clear – Delroy Lindo in Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods. He got nearly a quarter of the votes, and so, here we are, ready to dissect an achievement that, months ago, seemed like a sure bet in the Best Actor race. The role in question is that of Paul, a war veteran who, along with his brothers in arms, returns to Vietnam in search of a lost treasure and the remains of a mentor…
From his first scene, Delroy Lindo announces the creation of a complex portrait whose loudness shouldn't be confused for lack of nuance. Paul enters the film in a flurry of theatrical bravado, greeting his old friends with open-armed exuberance. It's been years since they've been together, and the land they find themselves in is full of memories, both bad and good, nostalgia and terror holding hands. His bonhomie notwithstanding, a glimpse of his fallen comrade, Stormin' Norman, in an old photograph is enough to cut through the joie de vivre.
A pained silence falls over the aged soldier, a shot of pensive mournfulness twisting his visage into a sculpture of dolorous serenity. Still, before the scene is over and the friends depart to their hotel rooms, Paul regains his bombast as he demands to pay for his stay, rejecting the charity of a wealthy friend. Instead of joy, it's bruised pride which shines in these exaggerated gestures and expressions. In some ways, it's almost as if Paul took the first chance he saw out of his grieving funk, performing outrage as a way to banish whatever despondency had taken hold of his heart.
Throughout the movie, Lindo will return to this strategy, to this rejection of outward vulnerability by the foregrounding of his short-temper. Despite this, whenever the painful past is brought up in conversation, Lindo's Paul deflates. After the initial shock of traumatized reminiscence, he might punctuate the scene with a burst of rage. However, we have already seen the mental wounds. We have glimpsed the bloody scars which have never fully healed. By illustrating the struggle to hide, Lindo makes us pay more attention to what's hidden.
Such odd alchemy of emotional clarity is of the utmost importance, considering what a prickly character Paul is. To the actor's great valor, he never tries to make him more sympathetic. Instead, Lindo sharpens the edges and highlights the abrasiveness of the role. This Trump-supporting man is a live-wire, a ball of rage ready to burn anyone who comes too close for comfort. His humanity isn't illuminated by downplaying such characteristics but by acting them to the hilt. Accordingly, Lindo interprets all of Paul's alienating facets with fearless vigor, daring us to look away and demanding we understand what lies beneath the surface.
It's not an easy task for the viewer to understand. Paul can be vicious, and the impulse to recoil from the screen is never too far away. For example, we can witness a tormented viciousness in how Paul treats his son in early scenes. Still, such paternalistic ugliness, calling the progeny an anchor chained around his father's neck, is a necessary set up for a later surprise. When Paul is forced to confront the possibility of his boy's destruction, the actor changes strategies. Lindo lets us sense the panic of the patriarch, the sweaty fear, the stink of despair emanating from the screen.
Before going too far down that road and focusing on the last act of Paul's tragedy, we should look back. Spike Lee decided to forego digital de-aging or recasting for budgetary reasons and maybe some artistic chutzpah when presenting flashbacks to the Vietnam War. That means Lindo and his fellow cast members have to evoke their characters' youth through nothing but their acting ingenuity. In the leading man's case, that manifests in the sense of nervous energy running through the scenes, an insecurity that's not wholly visible in the present portions of the narrative. One registers the unsureness of a young man in the way Paul shows reverence to Norman..
His reaction to Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, announced on Vietnamese radio, is also a fascinating thing to behold. By this point in the long movie, we're so used to seeing Paul explode in rage that his young despondency comes off as surprising. Even as four of the five bloods demand vengeance in the face of Norman's stoicism, Lindo's Paul is the one to exhibit less conspicuous fury. The man's ability to mask vulnerability with wrath hadn't been perfected yet, not at that point. For a performance so marked by big moments, Delroy Lindo is equally impressive in quieter scenes.
Lee's recurring player knows how to illustrate the festering trauma of Paul, the coagulated guilt, the chains around the man's heart. The balance between levels of showmanship is always precise, even if the mercurial nature of the character might make one doubt the actor's discipline. The best example of this is the solemn discovery of Norman's remains. It's a devastating spectacle, where Lindo foregoes his usual bombast to reveal a softer side of Paul, one that's overwhelmed by guilt, ravaged by loss. In this instance, he's almost gentle, aching with grief as he regards his fallen brother's bones with reverence.
After that funereal discovery, when a mine explodes, the entire tone of Da 5 Bloods irrevocably changes, and Lindo's performance changes with it. What had been simmering under a barely controlled façade gets revealed, and Paul goes completely mad, his capability to hide his interiority disappearing at q quick pace. As the grip on reality slips through Paul's fingers, the actor allows himself moments of dazed confusion. We feel his mind unraveling even as the man shouts orders with a gun in hand. Authority and helplessness dance together, a frightening choreography bound to end in doom. It's a testament to Lindo's mastery as an actor that the veteran's transformation never comes off as forced.
Watching Paul lose himself to the hauntings of the past, to the hatred that has birthed out of guilt, is legitimately frightening. As he rejects his son and heads alone into the jungle, Lindo acts as if nothing's holding him back, like the last connections between his spirit and his reason have been severed at long last. He screams to the heavens, spits viperous words at the camera, and considers the audience as if we were his last confessor. One almost wishes to stand up and applaud the screen, so brilliant his Lindo's direct-address soliloquy. However, what follows maybe even more impressive.
On the precipice of his end, Paul finds a path towards atonement. While feverish, he's self-aware, capable of seeing his actions for what they are, acknowledging the monster he has become in the eyes of his friends, his son. In one heartfelt hug between brothers-in-arms, he even seems to find salvation. Lindo plays the moment with overwhelming beauty, a redemptive torrent of emotion that sets the screen ablaze with tears. After that meeting with a ghost, a memory, we understand Paul is ready to die. He has found peace and, while singing to his executioners, the old soldier appears looser than we've ever seen him. Weight was taken off his back, the end has come, and he embraces it. What a miraculous performance!
Since we're still living through this particular awards season, I won't go into too much detail. Lindo got a lot of positive buzz and considerable critical support, but the advent of the televised awards was his downfall. Da 5 Bloods wasn't embraced by the industry like many expected, and the actor ended up with only a Critic's Choice nomination in terms of big precursors. Instead of Lindo, AMPAs chose to honor Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal, Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Anthony Hopkins in The Father, Gary Oldman in Mank, and Steven Yeun in Minari. Do you think Lindo should have been included over some of those men? I sure do.
Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods is streaming on Netflix.
Reader Comments (25)
This was the hardest snub for me Oscar morning. It would have been so rewarding for Lindo after the career he's had, not to mention the performance itself which was a tour-de-force. Should have easily replaced Oldman (who has an Oscar and other noms and in no way needed this career boost, plus his is an inferior performance). With that switch it would be a lineup for the ages!
It pisses me off that he's not nominated as he was great in that film as someone that is lost and in need of help while clinging on to the worst ideas of humanity as he later tries to find atonement for his actions.
I am perfectly ok with the 5 nominees. I don't miss Delroy Lindo here and the movie is mess and that counts for his no nomination.
The movie is a bit of a mess, and I don't know why people aren't talking about that as part of its lack of nominations. It's nowhere near as good as BlackKklansman was. It's also worth noting that Lindo's character is very unlikeable, which is a factor in awards season, like it or not. However, Lindo gives an incredible performance, and he should have been nominated. Oldman was great, too (also in a mediocre film), but he didn't need another nomination. It would have been a fitting career acknowledgement for Lindo.
Thanks Claudio.
It baffles me that so many people (rightly) celebrate this portrayal of a bombastic, loud exuberant character, and yet a similar amount of people criticise Glenn Close for an equally great and layered portrayal of another character with nuances behind the bravado.
Da 5 Bloods and Promising Young Woman are the movies that left me with a message this year.
Lindo should have been in Oldman's spot
I’m glad I don’t have to watch this now that he was snubbed
Imagine thinking Oldman was better than Lindo? lol
Terrible snub.
Lindo is probably one of my favorite performances of the year and this article is a beautiful tribute to him.
Maybe a few years from now we'll look back and think he should have gone supporting or that netflix ran a terrible campaign. Who knows?
I think he did an incredible job with a tough role that required scenery chewing, but also an immense amount of depth to make it work. He does that so well in the quiet moments, and it's easy to see other actors failing.
I'd put him ahead of everyone except Boseman. Those two gave the best performances of the year. However, I'd for sure put him in front of Oldman (who was fine, but not Oscar worthy), Yeun, and Ahmed. And Yeun and Ahmed are probably some of my favorite nominees of the year.
Must Glenn Close be mentioned in the comments for every post on here?
The movie is a bit messy... but Lindo is phenomenal in the role. Is for sure the best in the
5 that are nominees.
Of course he should be there,Oldmans doing what we thought he'd do as JM and Stephen Yuen whilst understated and a nice prescence in Minari isn't really given that much to work with.
I'd replace Yeun and Oldman with Mikkelsen and Lindo everyday.
Agree with others that the movie is an unfocused mess and that hurt Lindo's chances for a (deserved) nomination. I also think he should have been nominated for supporting actor back in '94 for his role in Spike Lee's Crooklyn. He's a wonderful actor.
I prefer the other performances to Lindo's.
The MVP in that movie was Clarke Peters, in my opinion.
Lindo had some good scenes, but some of the scenes were a bit too much.
His character is also very unlikeable and the movie is not amazing.
He should have not only been nominated, but also WON.
Are you kidding? That was the main talking point of discussions about the film here and elsewhere online since it was released.
Yes, the movie is messy but that hasn't stopped the Academy before with rewarding performances (although the messy film is often a biopic)
People talk about Gary Oldman not needing another nomination as if he had several. With Mank, they are 3, which is not even half of what he should have and does not live up to his status.
That said, Delroy Lindo has the best male performance of the year for me alongisde Anthony Hopkins.
Nah, it's an ensemble movie.
Da 5 Bloods was one of my favorite films of 2020, but my "nominees" for Lead Actor, at this point are...
Javier Bardem, The Roads not Taken
Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Chani Martín, Historias Lamentables (Unfortunate Stories)
Ivan Massagué, The Platform
Gary Oldmand, Mank
next in line: Delroy Lindo, Da 5 Bloods; Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm and Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
Ew Travis C. False equivalency with Close. You're in the minority withbyour view on her performance so maybe word it more as your opinion and not some mass hatred from folks with working eyes and ears who have already endured enough by watching Hillbilly Elegy.
Thought he had many powerful moments in Da 5 Bloods but in general I thought he overacted. Not a popular opinion I know but it's hoe I feel.
*how
Michael R. The same opinion here, don't worry