Update 2/7/18: Just a little one, adding the Kino DVD that was released separately, but at the same time, as their blu. Nothing exciting, same extras, same transfer apart from it being pared down to SD. It just came across my desk, so I'm mixing it into the comparisons in the interest of being more thorough.
Night of the Living Dead's Duane Jones is Dr. Hess Green, a well-to-do west coast anthropologist and an honest-to-goodness modern day vampire. When George (writer/ director Bill Gunn) tries to kill himself on Hess's property, the good Doctor takes him into his home, befriends him and gives him a place to say. But you can only live in the same house with a vampire for so long, and it seems like a quiet little murder that will go undetected until, to Hess's surprise, George's ex-wife Ganja (Marlene Clark) shows up with questions, and she isn't easily put off. In fact, she moves right in.
Ganja & Hess is a very low budget film, not helped by the present state of its film elements. It looks very 70s, grainy and grimy, like so many 70s clunkers. But this one is actually very smartly written with some great scenes and surprisingly modern and naturalistic performances. The pacing is deliberately "arty," which is to say slow without the usual emphasis on exploitation and cheap thrills, and the metaphor for blood drinking as drug addiction is really obvious and heavy-handed. But the good outweighs the bland, and the film really comes to life when Ganja shows up and manages to be a more exciting character than the vampire. Overall, this is a very serious, earnest production, but there are some wickedly funny moments at time to keep you engaged. It's unconventional structure might throw you off at first, plot points are buried and it does steer into some heavy self-indulgence at times (particularly the climax, which will seriously test your patience). But there's just too much great stuff here not to keep returning to it.
By the way, this was remade not too long ago by Spike Lee as Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. That's very faithful and stylish, definitely worth a look. But the new Ganja isn't a patch on Marlene Clark. So the remake's a fine curiosity piece, but the original's the truly compelling film.
So Image and All Day released this film a couple of times, first in 1998 and again in 2000. But I never bit until their 2006 "Complete Edition," which not only boasted new extras, but an exclusive restoration with "3 minutes of footage missing from previous home video versions." Well, glad to have the footage back, but it's still a pretty damaged viewing experience, opening up with a disclaimer about the picture quality. In 2012, Kino gave the film its HD debut with a blu-ray edition restored and "mastered in HD from a 35mm negative." They also released an SD edition of the same on DVD at the same time as a separate release. In both cases, it's still a pretty damaged viewing experience, and one that opens with its own disclaimer.
2006 Image DVD on top; 2012 Kino blu-ray below. |
2006 Image DVD on top; 2012 Kino DVD mid; 2012 Kino blu-ray below. |
Between Kino's blu and DVD, you don't lose a lot detail given the rough source material, but especially on a larger screen, you do see the difference. The DVD is softer around the edges. But the curious thing is that there's another difference. For whatever reason, the colors are different, with a warmer tone on the blu and a distinctly cooler push on the DVD. It's not even some super subtle, you'd never notice it distinction. I mean, it's not huge, obviously, but it's different enough that I wouldn't chalk it up to just the effects of different levels of compression for the two formats. Anyway, it's just an odd little detail. Personally, I prefer the blu's color timing.
Image gives us a somewhat hissy but respectable Dolby 2.0 mono track, and Kino essentially gives us the same but in LPCM. The strong musical moments manage to really grab you on both releases. None of the releases offer subs.
Now, extras are pretty interesting. All of the DVD releases from 1998 to Kino's blu feature a strong commentary, that's both fun and informative, by Marlene Clark, producer Chris Schultz, cinematographer James Hinton and composer Sam Waymon. If you consider yourself a fan of this film and haven't heard it yet, definitely check it out. Apart from some stills and a DVD-Rom article by Tim Lucas, that's all the old DVDs had. But the Complete Edition adds a new half hour documentary called The Blood Of the Thing, where Schultz takes you through the film's history. And all of that stuff, even the DVD-Rom bits, are on Kino's blu.
BUT, Kino actually took a step backwards. Because not only did they not produce any new features, but they dropped one other one that debuted on the Complete Edition. It's an 18 minute featurette called Ganja and Hess Reduced, and it's easy to see why Kino dropped it. It's David Kalat, the DVD producer, doing a partial audio commentary over the film. SO it makes sense Kino doesn't want All Day's guy on their disc, I guess - would Arrow have an interview with Cliff MacMillan on one of their discs? But it's a real loss, because Kalat is a bit of an expert on this film, and uses his time to basically fill in all of the obscure and interesting information about this film that the other extras left out. And this film is a treasure trove of obscure trivia and things you'd never pick up on, so this feature was really illuminating and interesting. And it's only on the 2006 DVD.
So this film's not for everybody, but it's really quite good. Apart from die-hard vampire lovers, this film might appeal more to drama fans than horror fans, but anybody who appreciates good movies will at least find something for them in here. And Kino (and MoMA) have given us the best, most definitive version of the film to date and that we're ever likely to see sans a time machine. So this is the version I'd recommend to anyone. But if you're a serious Ganja and Hess fan, you might want to double-dip for that last featurette. You know, get it used and treat it as a bonus disc.