Follow TV Tropes

Following

Film / Ganja & Hess

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ganjahessposter_1_3.jpg

"After being stabbed with an ancient, germ-infested knife, a doctor's assistant finds himself with an insatiable desire for blood."
— Anonymous Title Card at the beginning of the film

In 1972, an independent production company known as Kelly-Jordan Enterprises approached Bill Gunn, a black playwright and stage director, with the idea of making a "black vampire film" with a budget of $350,000. Though Gunn was ambivalent towards the idea, he accepted the project with the intent of using vampirism as a metaphor for addiction. The producers' relative inexperience at filmmaking gave Gunn a high degree of creative control over the film.

And thus, Ganja & Hess was born. Released in 1973, it's a blaxploitation horror film centering upon the life of wealthy black anthropologist Dr. Hess Green (Duane Jones, previously the star of Night of the Living Dead), after his mentally-unstable assistant, George Meda (Gunn), stabs him with a ceremonial dagger from the ancient African nation they had been researching. Soon thereafter, Hess falls in love with Meda's widow, Ganja (Marlene Clark), who learns of his vampirism and allows herself to be turned.

Although initially panned by critics of the time, it would later garner much acclaim in art film and film history circles, seeing it as the first example of a "black art film". It would later receive a remake in the form of Da Sweet Blood of Jesus directed by Spike Lee, which received mixed reviews mainly for its own take on the film's subject matter.


There existed an addiction to tropes among its peoples...

  • Abusive Parents: At one point, Ganja talks directly to the camera, giving a monologue about an event from her childhood. She got in a snowball fight, and when she went home her mother slapped her, told her that "Someone said they saw you being chased by a boy", and called her "a liar and a slut" when Ganja said otherwise.
    It was as though I was a disease. I have a brother that's ten years older than I am, I have a sister that's eight years older than I am. So that I was obviously an accident. And it was — it was "Ganja — I came down with Ganja", you know. And I think that day I decided that I was a disease. And I was gonna give her a full case of it. That whatever it was that I was, she was gonna have it. Maybe because she hurt me so badly. All that time up 'til then I really worked for her to say, "I love you. You're a wonderful girl, Ganja." She could never, ever say that. The only thing she could ever bring herself to say was that I was beautiful. And I loathed my beauty for that. Because she found it appealing.
  • An Aesop: Of a sort. Hess' assistant George types a suicide note in which he seemingly warns future academics (given the context of the film, Afro-American ones in particular) of the dangers and stresses of existing as intellectuals, while also advocating for an anti-intellectual approach to philosophy immediately after stabbing Hess with the Myrthian dagger:
    Philosophy is a prison. It disregards the uncustomary things about you. The result of individual thought is accruable only to itself. There is a dreadful need in man to teach. It destroys the pure instinct to learn. The navigator learns from the stars, the stars teach nothing. The sun opens the mind and sheds light on the flowers. The eyes shame the pages of any book. Gesture destroys concept. Involvement mortifies vanity. You are the despised of the Earth. That is as if you were water in the desert. To be adored on this planet is to be a symbol of success. And you must not succeed on any terms. Because life is endless. You are as nameless as a flower. You are a child of Venus and her natural affection is lust. She will touch your belly with her tongue, but you must not suffer in it. For love is all there is and you are cannon fodder in its defense.
  • Blaxploitation: The film is considered a subversion of the genre, given its intimate subject matter and prevailing sense of melancholy and disillusionment.
  • Country Matters: At the beginning of the movie, Hess' new assistant George tells a story about a director friend of his who was filming a movie in Holland, "and the thing you've got to know about this story is that in Dutch, 'cut' means 'cunt'". The director solves this problem by yelling "Cunt!" at the end of every take instead of "Cut".
  • Driven to Suicide: Hess' assistant, George. And by the end, Hess.
  • Gainax Ending: After Hess kills himself, a young man Ganja had killed earlier in the film rises out of a pool in front of Hess' mansion, naked and running toward her, as she looks at the camera and smiles.
  • Holy Burns Evil: An interesting twist on this trope — it's mentioned in "The Blood of the Thing Pt. 2 (The Shadow of the Cross)" that the reason that the cross harms vampires is because it was an instrument of torture.
  • Lost in the Maize: There are frequent cuts throughout the film to a dreamlike meadow in which different characters (the Myrthians, Ganja and Hess, and finally, just Hess) come to at different parts of the film.
  • Male Frontal Nudity: A couple of examples, including George in the bathroom immediately before his suicide and the man Hess had previously killed in the ending.
  • Meaningful Title: The title of the film is a very deliberate reference to marijuana. But it also serves as an metaphor for a disenchanted existence and the consolation addiction brings.
  • Mood Whiplash: Occurs a few times in the film, as part of its experimental and dreamlike nature. One particularly notable example: Ganja's emotional, heartbreaking monologue about her abusive mother is immediately followed by a scene of her and Hess having a pillow fight in a hallway, scored to upbeat music.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: Rather than being turned by a bite, Hess (and Ganja) are turned by a dagger supposedly covered in bacteria from the ancient Myrthians.
    • The Myrthians themselves are a ancient African tribe that seemed to have lived off ritual blood consumption.
  • Recurring Riff: "The Blood of the Thing" and "Bongili Work Song".
  • Rich Bitch: Ganja is rather wealthy and tends to be quite rude, as shown by her condescending treatment of Hess' long-suffering servant Archie.
    Ganja: Archie, when you get the grape jelly — and you are gonna get the grape jelly, right?
    Archie: Of course, madam...
    Ganja: Well then, why don't you get the grits? (Beat) At the same time?
    Archie: ...Grits.
    Ganja: Grits. Hominy grits. You know what hominy grits are, don't you?
    Archie: Hominy grits.
    Ganja: Hominy grits. Now, the other thing I wanted to ask you about is, I need an... an extension cord, I have a record player I wanna play downstairs.
    Archie: For a... record player.
    Ganja: For a record player! You understand a record player? And you understand extension cord. So we got three things going. We got some grape jelly, some hominy grits, and extension cord. Don't we?
    Archie: Yes, ma'am.
    Ganja: Thank you so much.
  • Surreal Horror: The film is shot in a very dreamlike fashion with its shadowy lighting and ethereal sound design, colouring the more visceral parts of the film with an abject sense of dread.
  • Theme Tune: A particularly dark version of this trope in which and where, whenever Hess or Ganja are about to kill someone, ominous African chanting starts to play in the background becoming increasingly distorted to represent their darkened mindstates.
    • Another example is "The Blood of the Thing", a soft and ambient soul song in three parts describing the pangs of addiction to blood. Pt. 2 (The Shadow of the Cross) in particular, describes the history of the Myrthians and how their kingdom came to be.
      By the Christians it was written that in the Black Myrthian age
      There existed an addiction to blood among its people
      Thousands of slaves were bled to date
      But murdered in such a way, the slaves could not die
      There was visited upon them a curse that they should live forever
      Unless the shadow of the cross, an implement of torture, touched their darkened hearts
      But oh, since Christ had not come
      And the cross did not exist
      Don't you know, don't you know
      Don't you know, they were cursed to walk the Earth 'til the Christians came

  • Turn to Religion: An odd and tragic variation in which, disillusioned with his lifestyle as a vampire, Hess returns to the Christian church headed by his chauffeur, Reverend Luther Williams. And later on, kills himself by standing in front of a cross.


Top