NFL
By: Matt Overton
The Twenty-first Joint
I foolishly assumed I had reached the nadir of Spike Lee’s career with his inflammatory Oldboy (2013), but little did I know what he had in store with Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. His second remake in a row, this is a remake of the 1973 film Ganja & Hess by Bill Gunn. Having never seen the original, and just witnessing how he handled the remake of Oldboy, it’s safe to say Spike is zero for two when it comes to remaking a movie. Does this leave me uneasy and worried about his reimagining of High and Low? Most assuredly.
The film opens on Dr. Hess Green, who is an anthropologist specializing in ancient African civilizations. He has a respectable private collection of artifacts that adorn his home. When a dagger from the Ashantis is discovered, he’s real passionate about adding it to his collection. There’s a Mr. Hightower who becomes his research assistant and also begins rooming with Green as they begin the project together. Unexpectedly, Hightower starts showing signs of extreme depression; he’s talked down from suicide by Green, but the doctor’s kindness is repaid by being violently stabbed with the ancient African dagger.
So not only does this film grapple with being Black and a Christian, but it also tackles vampire culture. I was excited when the film opened on Lil’ Peace of Heaven and Deacon Zee from Red Hook Summer—continuing Spike’s fun trend of tying his Brooklyn films together in special ways like re-using Isaiah Whitlock Jr’s character Flood whenever he needs a wise-cracking detective—but this one isolated scene was the only flash of connectivity. The rest of this movie is only interested in Hess and his new side piece Ganja. You could say their evolving relationship is the crux of the film, but it’s handled so poorly and uninterestingly that there’s hardly a story to get invested in at all.
The whole production seems at odds with itself. The photography is so bland and uninspired, with everything appearing extremely sterile. The performances are laughable, the dialogue unnatural, and the core relationship is so obtuse. I’ve said before that I prefer Spike’s films that are scripted by him, but his flop streak painfully continues here. This has to be one of the most unfortunate run of films by any accomplished director.
Da Sweet Blood of Jesus was legitimately the most excruciating watch of this entire marathon. The story is so sterile, the performances so lacking in emotion, and the overall aesthetic so plain that it was a real chore getting through this. Maybe Spike should stick to original ideas or adapting books, because his remake game is rough. If only I knew this before I decided to watch 20+ films by him before his latest remake. I may have made a grave mistake.
