So much average

Fantastic!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Even though it got a standing ovation at Cannes, the independent producers were appalled when they hired playwright/director Bill Gunn to make a blaxsploitation horror film a la BLACULA and he turned in a cerebral allegory on black identity. They cut about 40 minutes and released it in the U.S. as BLOOD COUPLE where it sank without a trace. Gunn's original vision remained "lost" until recently but because the negative was cut, the MoA had to reconstruct the film from various 35mm prints and it's now being appreciated as an artistically innovative contribution to black cinema's history.The story, such as it is, is slight: wealthy anthropologist Hess Green's unstable assistant stabs him with an ancient African sacrificial knife and he becomes a "vampire", although not in the traditional sense; there's no fangs and the good doctor can go out in the daylight and even attend church. He satisfies his craving for blood by killing pimps, hookers, and stealing plasma bags but complications arise when Ganja, his late assistant's avaricious wife, arrives at Hess' mansion looking for her husband. She and Hess bond despite her finding her husband's body in the freezer and Ganja & Hess soon marry. Hess "turns" her and, finally finding redemption in love, wants them to stand in the shadow of the Cross (the only thing that can kill "vampires") but because of the life she's had, Ganja actually prefers her new one and has no intention of giving it up.Culture clash, assimilation, colonialism, "Uncle Tom", pagan African religion vs the Baptist church, and "the new black woman" all come into play in what's basically the antithesis of "blaxsploitation" but because I've never lived the "black experience", I didn't connect with all of it (if anything, I saw feminism with Ganja reversing what happens to Lot's wife in Sodom). That said, one would have to be blind not to see there's a lot bubbling just beneath the surface and like Masaki Kobayashi's KAIDAN, I was carried along by the film's visual style even if the tale was rather slow-moving and not as horrific as I'd like. Still, the film stayed in my mind for a couple of days after watching it. Spike Lee remade it as DA SWEET BLOOD OF Jesus.

In the history of Black cinema, Bill Gun's movie is certainly a bizarre oddity. It doesn't fit at all with the Blaxploitation films of the same period, nor is it in any conventional sense a horror film. It does address many recognizable aspects of Black culture (or, it might be more accurate to say, the "pop" culture version of it): the Baptist church, the gaudily-dressed pimp, the blonde-wigged whore, the gun play, the jive talk, the mystical back-to-Africa mythological hokum. However, its visual style owes more to Bergman (Hour of the Wolf) and Argento than to Van Peebles and others. This is a film about the corruptions and decadence of the Black bourgeoisie; before most folks even knew there was one. But this isn't the Cosby Show. Doomed from the outset--not because it doesn't have a striking visual style, it does--but because it failed to offer audiences, Black and White, the view of Black culture they crave, even today; the Black culture even Spike Lee invariably provides on cue. For this reason, a groundbreaking movie, and one worth another look and further re-evaluation. It has more than a hint of the Dorian Gray, of the knowingly camp, about it. Gunn makes it hard to tell how seriously to take the religious imagery and symbolism. If, however, a White director had made the scenes in the Black church--the behavior of the congregation as outlandishly over-the-top and "insane" as anything in the Dr. Hess household--he or she would surely have been accused of being racist. Gunn himself plays against Blaxploitation type: a somewhat effete intellectual, almost certainly homosexual, whose violence is ultimately entirely self-directed. The image of Black masculinity as vulnerably exposed, and painfully so, is perhaps more honestly revealed here than in any other "Black" film. Compared with this, even Lee only pussyfoots around the issue.

To simply tag "Ganja & Hess" with a label of blaxploitation would be a serious understatement, as this is probably THE most ambitious 'black' film of entire 70's decade. The substance of the film covers horror, but you really wouldn't say so, as there's no explicit violence or bloodshed on screen, and the whole production relies on its dark and moody atmosphere. It's a really weird and ultra-slow film, definitely not suitable viewing in case you are looking for barbaric 70's horror. I can't say I liked it very much because, honestly, it's a super-pretentious film that goes on for far too long without actually handling about anything. I appreciate smart dialogs and subtle atmosphere as much as the next guy, but a synopsis claiming to revolve on blood addiction and passionate murder eventually must show something, right? Duane Jones ("Night of the Living Dead") gives a marvelously languid performance as a doctor who suffers from an insatiable desire for human blood, brought onto him after being stabbed with an ancient cursed dagger. Shortly after, when his assistant (played by Bill Gunn, the director) commits suicide, Dr. Hess comes into contact with his widow Ganja and sweeps her along in his strange and depressing 'vampire' universe. The acting performances and filming locations form a potent mix, but the pace of the film is truly soporific. Bill Gunn artsy attempts to disguise the lack of budget with various ingenious camera angles and sound effects, but he still can't hide the fact there's no suspense or involvement in the screenplay. Perhaps the heavily cut version "Blood Couple" is more endurable. I can only imagine some of the dialog is cut in that version, as there's no gore or sleaze to censor. It's an interesting film considering its historical background, but it doesn't hold any entertainment value.

I first heard of GANJA & HESS (1973) on the Internet but, after reading several favorable reviews, I decided to purchase it and I'm glad I did – though I've only watched it once so far. While I absolutely adore the "old" horror films, it's refreshing that once in a while a film comes along that treats the genre with extra sensitivity and maturity: Bill Gunn's approach, while peripheral in intent, is highly original and invigorating. The music score adds that much more to it, while the photography and editing techniques envelop the whole in a truly stunning visual style. It is inconceivable that such a seminal (and relatively recent) piece of work was almost lost to the ravages of time, not to mention the ignorance and pretensions of commercially-minded distributors!The DVD's Audio Commentary, though limited (due to the obvious absence of Gunn and Duane Jones), was quite informative and the cast and crew members involved were certainly enthusiastic, harboring a genuine affection for the film. The essay co-written by Tim Lucas was also very interesting, filling as it does the "gaps" concerning the film's background and its chequered history along the years.I would have liked that the notorious shorter version of the film, BLOOD COUPLE – complete with alternate credits and extra footage, shot by Gunn but discarded when assembling the original director's cut – could have been included on the DVD but, when I put this question to David Kalat (All Day's President), this is what he had to say:"On GANJA & HESS, all of the parties involved in the original version hated and despised the BLOOD COUPLE recut and everything it represented to them. They worked hard, for little pay, to make a Black art film, and found their work abused and maltreated. 25 years later, through the DVD, they found an opportunity to try again. None of them--the producer, the editor, the DP--would have agreed to include the BLOOD COUPLE cut on the DVD, and I respected their wishes. I used Tim's article as a way to describe that alternate version, even if it wasn't otherwise represented."