Ganja & Hess: A Spiritual Fable of Addiction
Bill Gunn’s psychotronic 1973 classic
Ganja & Hess was written and directed by Bill Gunn, and it's sort of difficult to decipher what it's trying to say. Sometimes literally. The sound mixing can make it hard to tell what's being said, like in the film's opening sermon. But it's also hard to see what message Gunn was trying to send with this film, as he gives us some mixed signals.
Before the film even starts, Gunn bluntly describes to us the events that are about to transpire by transcribing his own plot synopsis, which I will relay to you now…
Then, when we get to the opening credits about five minutes in, we hear a song performed by Sam Waymon called Blood of the Thing, in which this phenomenon is described further…
Of the Christians it is written that in the Black Myrthian Age
That there existed an addiction to blood among its people
Thousands of slaves were bled to death
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, touch their darkened hearts
But, oh, since Christ had not come
And the cross did not exist
Don't you know, they were called to walk the Earth
'Til the Christians came
'Til the Christians came
'Til the Christians came
Thus is foreshadowed the fate of our Dr. Hess Green, who must satiate his newfound thirst for blood by hunting warm bodies and sucking 'em dry.
Watching this film for the first time, even after all that explanation, it still took me a little while to figure out why Hess wouldn't die after being stabbed multiple times on more than one occasion. That's because the film meanders so much, from its trippy montages to its waxing poetic monologues, that it can be easy to lose the plot.
The film is about addiction, and from that comes the question of fixing it or learning to live with it, "letting go", as they put it. Gunn is grappling with faith vs. individualism, and he doesn't seem to have much of a clear answer.
Gunn plays the character of George Meda in the film, Dr. Green's patient, a schizophrenic with suicidal tendencies. He types up a poem and recites it aloud to himself…
…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 eyes shame the pages of any book
Gesture destroys concept
Involvement mortifies vanity
Then, George is bathing in Dr. Green’s tub, brushing his teeth with his own bath water, before having one of his psychotic episodes and shooting himself in the heart. Hess bursts in, and upon the sight of George’s blood, his thirst kicks in. Whenever his craving arises, we hear a buzzing noise and the chanting of the Myrthian children.
George’s wife calls Hess on the phone and demands to stay at his house until her husband "returns". This is where Ganja Meda enters the picture. It's not long after that Ganja & Hess fall in love, and they are soon married. That's even after she discovers her husband's body in the doctor's freezer. Water under the bridge.
Hess then delivers his own monologue…
The only perversions that can be comfortably condemned are the perversions of others. I will persist and survive without God's or society's sanction. I will not be tortured, I will not be punished, I will not be guilty. Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for thee, preserve thee, body and soul, for everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ's blood was shed for thee, and be thankful.
As he says this, he raises the Myrthian dagger in the air and plunges it into Ganja's heart, as we hear the film's theme song…
You've got to learn
To let it go
You've got to know
When it's over
Gunn seems to have a running theme of individualism, self-responsibility, and self-empowerment, letting go of society’s judgment. Seeing as these are, presumably, his own words, and sometimes coming from his own mouth, this would seem to be his stance on things. But then he sort of confuses his message at the end.
After taking multiple lives and being unable to curb his addiction, he then turns to his local church, where the Reverend just so happens to be his chauffeur, and Hess comes to Jesus for salvation. Then, while sitting in his house, he is struck by the shadow of a cross and vanquished, as was foretold.
I'm not sure what to make of this. The film was preaching a message of letting go of guilt and judgment, disregarding society's rules and learning to be your own man. But then our protagonist seems to have been punished by God for his sins.
So what is Gunn trying to say here? That the characters we're meant to identify and empathize with, including himself, were all wrong in their beliefs? Is he saying that God is wrong in his judgment? Is it a bit of both, or neither? I'm not really sure, and I don't think Gunn is entirely sure either, and that's not a bad thing.
There's a lot of symbolism in the film, some of it quite obvious, like when Hess is framed with his head hanging down in front of a noose, or when Ganja is framed next to the symbol of the Red Cross on an ambulance windshield.
Ganja & Hess as a film feels quite messy and disjointed, with Gunn expressing his feelings through his characters in a sort of free-form stream of consciousness. He'll present these heavy dramatic scenes and then move right on with almost no segue.
Ganja confronts Hess about him stashing away her husband's corpse in the freezer, and then in the next scene, she'll be talking with him about how her mother mistreated her, and they never bring up her husband again. That's one example.
Gunn might be trying to replicate the feeling of being high, tying back in to the theme of addiction. He cuts together montages layering multiple images and pieces of music on top of each other, in an attempt to disorient the viewer. Hell, he named one of his titular characters after marijuana, so that checks out.
You could chalk up the film’s loose structure to its lack of budget or Gunn’s incompetence as a filmmaker, but I don’t necessarily see it that way. I felt that I was seeing a true auteur work, where I was seeing an artist’s vision being translated directly to the screen. Almost every shot and every edit felt deliberate and purposeful, as cluttered as it may appear.
Gunn, like most great directors, has developed his own trademark style, and is not afraid to be spontaneous and go against the grain. He was paving the road for other black filmmakers in America, just a few short years after Hollywood first allowed a black man, Gordon Parks, to direct a major motion picture with The Learning Tree, released by Warner Bros. in 1969. Hard to believe it took that long. Or maybe not — the system is indeed trash.
Gunn could've been Hollywood's second black director, as he also made a film for Warner Bros. in 1970 called Stop! The film received an X rating and was deemed too extreme for the studio to release. Keep in mind, this is the same company that put out A Clockwork Orange and The Devils the following year. To this day, Stop! has only been screened at a few small festivals over the years.
After Ganja & Hess premiered in New York, Gunn took his own print to the Cannes Film Festival, where it got a very positive reception. However, when the film found a distributor in Heritage Enterprises, they recut the film, removing over half an hour, and retitling it Blood Couple. Gunn attended a screening of the abridged film, where he walked out ten minutes in and demanded his name be taken off.
Dr. Hess Green is played by Duane Jones, best known for his role as Ben in Night of the Living Dead, the one popular horror film where the black character dies last. He starred in only nine films throughout his career. He spent most of his life in academia, as an administrator, theater director, and acting teacher. He died in 1988 at the age of 51.
Ganja Meda is played by Marlene Clark, who is a delight to watch. She, like Jones, didn't make too many appearances in film, but she certainly left an impact. She was featured in Hal Ashby's debut film The Landlord, with a screenplay by Bill Gunn, who then cast her in his film Stop! before giving her a leading role in Ganja & Hess. That same year, she also appeared as a secretary in Enter the Dragon. Aside from Ganja & Hess, she's best known for playing the role of Janet Lawson on Sanford & Son.
The doctor's chauffeur, the Reverend Luther Williams, is played by Sam Waymon, who performed most of the film's music. He is best known as being the brother of Nina Simone, and you can see a Simone record sitting under a table in the film. Waymon, aside from his soundtracks for Gunn's films, hasn't put out many records, only two albums from what I could find, one in 1987 and the other in 1993.
Bill Gunn spent most of his career as an author, playwright, and screenwriter. He also acted on the stage, where he would rub shoulders with Marlon Brando and James Dean. He won an Emmy for writing the drama Johnnas in 1972. He would direct one more film in 1980, called Personal Problems. He died in 1989 at the age of 54.
