Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Chadwick Boseman, Film and TV, Netflix, Stephen King
Ellie Kemp
Topics: Chadwick Boseman, Film and TV, Netflix, Stephen King
To say Stephen King knows a thing or two about storytelling would be an understatement.
The best-selling author and King of Horror has had many of his hugely successful books adapted into movies and TV series, with a whole lot of them available to stream on Netflix.
From IT and Carrie to The Shining and more, you’re bound to have seen a King adaptation in your time.
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It makes sense, then, that the author is vocal about his own recommendations, having previously urged fans to watch a Netflix show with a 'Stranger Things vibe' and perfect Rotten Tomatoes score.
Another of his glowing endorsements was for a 2020 war movie directed by Spike Lee and starring Black Panther's Chadwick Boseman.
Poignantly, the movie was the last to be released in the actor's lifetime, two months before he died from colon cancer at the age of 43.
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Racking up a 92 percent rating from Rotten Tomatoes critics, it was dubbed among Lee's 'most urgent and impactful films'.
Alongside Boseman, the 150-minute-long flick also stars Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters and Norm Lewis.
It follows a group of four aging Vietnam War veterans who return to the country in search of the remains of their fallen squad leader, as well as the treasure they buried while serving there.
The movie takes an unflinching look at the racism experienced by Black Americans in the army - who were more likely to be drafted than their White American counterparts.
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Despite making up 11 percent of the US population in 1967, African Americans accounted for 16.3 percent of all draftees, according to The New York Times.
In fact, the Vietnam War saw the 'highest proportion' of African-American soldiers in the US military up until that point, as per PBS.
The movie is called Da 5 Bloods and you can watch the trailer below:
It released in June 2020, just weeks after George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, sparking protests across the globe.
Taking to X in June 2020, King praised the movie, writing: "DA 5 BLOODS: 'We ain't home, son. We ain't home.'
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"This film is fabulous, for all sorts of reasons. Right movie, right time."
Hailing the film 'a masterpiece' and applauding the Lee's 'nuanced' storytelling, critics were certainly in agreement with the best-selling author.
But viewers didn't quite share the same sentiment, rating it 53 percent overall instead.
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Criticizing the 'slow pacing' of the film's first half, one person wrote: "Is this an important movie and did this movies story need to be told? 100%.
"Was this movie for me? No, not really."
Another praised the Da 5 Blood's 'elite actors' but noted that 'character development' was lacking and reckoned the film's dialogue wasn't the best.
Da 5 Bloods is available to stream now on Netflix.