“Delroy Lindo’s entrance in Da 5 Bloods feels off. Typically, his characters’ first appearance commands attention, his large frame and wide eyes attracting our gaze. In Bloods he is first seen walking through a lobby towards two friends, and next to another. He’s slightly hunched and appears hesitant. In that moment, he could almost be an extra, walking by. His fellow Vietnam Vets (Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis and Isiah Whilock Jr.) are all wearing colorful shirts with freshly shaved faces suggesting vacationing businessmen. Lindo’s Paul, however, covers his head with an old Vietnam Vets hat, his eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses and his face covered with a few weeks’ stubble. Under his black leather vest is a t-shirt of a Punisher Skull, filled in with the US flag. Though not as confrontational as the MAGA hat he will later wear, there’s a visual tension in his costuming and posture that sets apart from the rest of the Bloods.
“In most films Lindo is an immediately striking presence, a hint of violence may be simmering but he mostly broadcasts confidence, charm and authority. When he tells you not to eat his sesame cake, you listen. With Paul there is a barely veiled insecurity under his seething anger. A recurring motif of snakes underlines his status quo: coiled and ready to bite. He’s a Trump supporter who identifies with the ethos of Rambo sequels: we left Vietnam too early and need to go back and win the war. Paul retains an open prejudice towards all Vietnamese people, perceiving them as foreigners in their own land. Whenever a Vietnamese character comes close to him, he tenses up. The more vulnerable Paul feels, the more violently he reacts. Yet Lindo roots every violent xenophobic outburst and selfish proclamation in the character’s pain and anguish. ‘When you’ve been cheated in life as much as I have,’ Lindo growls, ‘you learn to spot the signs of all the dirty rat bastards out there.’
“Towards the end he comes to see everyone as a rat bastard, from the other Bloods to his own son. Feeling betrayed, he turns away from his community one last time. As he disappears into the jungle, back to camera in a long-shot, Lindo howls in torment and weeps as he begins reciting Psalm 23:4 (‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…’). After this Lee cuts to a close up of Lindo in a direct address. This speech seems like the place for Lee’s double dolly shot - a character at a moment of transition floating towards destiny - but instead the monologue is delivered to an unsteady, hand-held camera.
“Staring into the camera Lindo recounts his life’s most egregious cheats, Agent Orange poisoning his blood, his child’s birth leading to his wife’s death. His fierce gaze, clenched rage, and desperate eyes showing the depths of pain he felt and his growing awareness of the depth of pain he’s caused. The cognitive dissonance he lives with daily is punctuated at the end of the monologue as he raises a black power fist over his MAGA hat. An image that speaks louder than irony because Lindo has grounded the character’s contradictions in such humanity. If he hadn’t fused the anguish with the anger, the final moment of redemption may have felt forced, rather than earned. It’s a performance that will live on beyond Awards season hype. So I hope Lindo takes the advice God once gave Paul: ‘Fuck them motherfuckers. Keep on keeping on’.”
Kevin Cecil lives in Brooklyn, NY, and is the co-host of Movie Trivia Nite, formerly at their Prospect Park location and currently online via Zoom every Tuesday.
Best Lead Performance - Top 25:
1. Delroy Lindo - Da 5 Bloods [234/23]
2. Chadwick Boseman - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom [203/17]
3. Rid Ahmed - Sound of Metal [200/17]
4. Viola Davis - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom [112/11]
5. Elisabeth Moss - The Invisible Man [110.5/11]
6. Jessie Buckley - I'm Thinking of Ending Things [104.5/10]
7. Sidney Flanigan - Never Rarely Sometimes Always [97.5/11]
8. Tallie Medel - Fourteen [97/9]
9. Frances McDormand - Nomadland [94/9]
10. Julia Garner - The Assistant [87.5/8]
11. Carey Mulligan - Promising Young Woman [71.5/10]
12. Mads Mikkelsen - Another Round [70.5/7]
13. Shaun Parkes - Mangrove [69/6]
14. John Boyega - Red, White and Blue [64/7]
15. Vitalina Varela - Vitalina Varela [62.5/6]
16. Luca Marinelli - Martin Eden [54/5]
17. John Magaro - First Cow [48/5]
18. Atsuko Maeda - To the Ends of the Earth [46.5/4]
19. Carrie Coon - The Nest [44/4]
20. Elisabeth Moss - Shirley [39/5]
21. Christopher Abbott - Possessor [37.5/4]
22. (tie) Willem Dafoe - Tommaso [36/4]
22. (tie) Viktoria Miroshnichenko - Beanpole [36/4]
24. Hugh Jackman - Bad Education [35/3]
25. Steven Yeun - Minari [34/4]
Coming at 9 PM: A tribute to one another of 2020’s greatest performers, gone far too soon.
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