10 Most Intense Scenes In War Films

Spike Lee’s excellent Netflix-original Da 5 Bloods is a powerful reflection on the intersection of war, colonialism, and racism in which an ex-soldier, Paul, and the surviving members of his former squad return to Vietnam in the present day in order to retrieve gold they hid in the jungle during the war.

In a crucial moment, Paul leaves his friends in their moment of greatest need, venturing off into the jungle alone, pursued by a group of Vietnamese gunmen. Soon after he is bitten by a snake and alerts the gunmen. He’s now in danger and defenceless. Paul, we realize, is going to die.

This is where Spike Lee chooses to use one of his most effective tactics - the fourth-wall-breaking monologue. Paul tries to justify his selfishness to us (and therefore himself), explaining why he is trying to just look out for himself. But these scenes don't just function as an illustration of Paul's flawed way of thinking. Instead, these monologues become tied up in his trauma, survivor's guilt, and his disenfranchisement, both during his experience in Vietnam and afterwards.

It climaxes in Paul coming face-to-face with his own self-loathing in a stunning, ethereal moment that does so much to explain who the character is. Both Delroy Lindo's performance and Spike Lee's directorial decisions combine to show us the intensity of this reckoning, bringing all the pain and injustice we have seen illustrated again and again in this movie to their most emotionally-intense manifestation.