Spike Lee’s new film Da 5 Bloods tells the story of African-American vets of the Vietnam war who return to the country in the present day to find the remains of their squad leader and seek out a gold treasure they buried in the jungle. The movie—starring Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, and Isiah Whitlock, Jr., and Jonathan Majors—premieres on Netflix on June 12.
“The United States Armed Forces came close to being torn apart when black soldiers heard that Dr. King was assassinated,” Lee told Vanity Fair in a recent interview. “They also heard that their brothers and sisters were tearing shit up in over 100 cities across America. The tipping point came very close; the black soldiers were getting ready to set it off in Vietnam—and not against the Vietcong either.”