Da 5 Bloods, the new Netflix Vietnam-riff on The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, features Spike Lee’s usual inventiveness when it comes to storytelling – incorporating archival material, narrative asides, and direct-to-camera monologues. Lee is a director not afraid to take big swings. Especially when it comes to stylistic flourishes. Something that should inspire you in your own scripts.
Make Big Choices
One of the more striking elements to this movie – and new to Lee’s cinematography – features the lead actors playing themselves as young men in the flashback sequences. There’s no Irishman digital trickery at work. These are 60-year-old men playing 20-year-old characters.
And it works! It supports their journey back into their past, as they grapple with the events of 40 years earlier. In service of the story, the choice
Keep yourself open to making these sorts of big choices. Ideally done in service of the story. Writing your script the exact same way anyone else would means your script is the same as everyone else’s. These unique flourishes in how you tell your story is what will help you stand out.