Da Sweet Blood of Jesus
I’m somebody who contributed to the Kickstarter campaign that brought Spike Lee’s “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus” to the screen. I want to get that out of the way now to acknowledge my bias with regards to this movie. The reason I contributed is because, well, it’s a Spike Lee Joint– as a fan (more often than not) of the director’s work, I felt like I had to get in on that, and it’s been great getting updates on the project the past year-plus. Hopefully, I’ll get to see it in it’s limited released starting Friday, February 13, but if not, I’m grateful he released it online via Vimeo so that we could watch it beforehand.
Now that that’s out of the way, time to discuss Lee’s latest film. Another part of the reason I wanted to participate in the Kickstarter campaign for the film was because the vague description Lee gave for the film– “a love story about people addicted to blood, but not vampires” –is a tantalizing one, especially coming off of the “Twilight” saga. Was Spike Lee horning in on Stephanie Meyers’s territory? Absolutely not, and that’s obvious watching the movie. This is a film about addiction, and about circumstance giving way to a terrible life. The film is described as a “horror comedy film” on it’s Wikipedia page, but that’s far too reductive. Yes, it has elements of horror, and yes, it can be very funny, but first and foremost, it’s about people who find themselves cut off from society, and whose addiction allows them moments of surprising connectivity with others on an intimate level, while ultimately isolating them further. I was surprised to learn that Lee’s film is based on another film, “Ganga and Hess,” by the late Bill Gunn, from the ’70s. That makes two straight remakes from the iconoclastic filmmaker, but unlike his 2013 reworking of “Oldboy,” which was done for commercial purposes, this film is intended (I think) to point us in the direction of a great, earlier film we may never had heard of before. That alone gives value to Lee’s film, not that it would need it since it is, in fact, a Spike Lee film, and while commercial success has largely eluded the director, he’s still a vital cinematic voice. While I wouldn’t place it in the same company of his best work, “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus” is far from a minor key effort by the director.
The film starts, beautifully, with a montage of Charles “Lil Buck” Riley dancing with great poetry in various locations around Brooklyn. It’s a lovely, engaging sequence that serves to allow Lee to deliver the opening titles before beginning the film proper, which happens during a service at the Lil’ Piece of Heaven Baptist Church, with a rousing sermon giving way to an isolated shot of Dr. Hess Green (Stephen Tyrone Williams) in the back of the church. He’s not taking part in the call-and-response, he’s not excited. He’s just watching on as the pastor discusses the concept of the blood and flesh of Jesus, and it’s importance. Not long after, we see him as he is shown an ancient artifact from the Ashanti people, who existed before the Egyptian Empire. It is a ceremonial knife, used to make surgical incisions, and in blood rites that, supposedly, saved the Ashanti leader, but led to mass destruction of the culture once people began dying from anemia (the people’s blood was used to save their leader), and going to war over precious blood. Dr. Green is fascinated by African culture, and the knife will make a rich addition to his collection. One day, however, his colleague in his research, goes crazy, considering suicide one night (before Dr. Green talks him out of it), only to stab Dr. Green with the knife the next day before taking his own life. When that happens, Dr. Green comes back to life, with a thirst for blood that is made complicated when his colleague’s ex-wife (Ganga, played by Zaraah Abrahams) comes to see her ex-husband, trying to get money out of him. From there, the story takes some turns that are alternately dark and funny before turning tragic.
The thing that really stood out about the movie was it’s soundtrack. The score in composed by ’80s artist Bruce Hornsby, and it’s a lovely, piano driven effort from the songwriter, but the song soundtrack is what really stands out. It’s chock-full of unknown artists, selected by Lee (who put out a call for submissions), and it’s a collection of R&B and rap tracks that sometimes works perfectly with the tone of the scene, and other times works in opposition to the tone. The latter may seem like a failure, but it’s not, because the dissonance between soundtrack and scene works to enhance both. Lee has always been one of a handful of filmmakers who knows precisely how to utilize music in his films, and this is no exception, from the opening dance credits to a gospel number at the end that illuminates the spiritual dilemma Hess is feeling. In cases like this, music is the heart and soul of Spike Lee’s storytelling, and it’s a soundtrack worthy of comparison to some of the finest compilations in recent memory.
The music is only intended to help Lee tell his story, though, and although there are moments where the ideas behind that story seem to get lost in the shuffle (focus has often been an Achilles heel for Lee as a director), “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus” is an engaging, sensual, haunting story to watch. The performances by Abrahams and Williams, both unknowns, draw us in to the characters, and let us see them, warts and all, and they make an alluring pair. As Hess’s servant, Seneschal, Rami Malek steals the show at times, especially when Ganga is humiliating him with her overbearing attitude. And as an old flame of Hess’s that comes to visit, and forms a bond with Ganga, Naté Bova is a smart addition to the equation in Act III as Tangier. From a visual standpoint, this is one of Lee’s best shot films in years, with cinematography by Daniel Patterson (an old NYU student of Lee’s) that shimmers with bright, elegant framing and lighting, making a sequence with Ganga going to get wine out of Hess’s dank basement particularly glaring in how different it feels from the rest of the film. The real MVP of the film, though, is Lee himself, who feels reinvigorated as a storyteller when he’s not shackled by studio necessities and works cheap and from the heart. Yes, he’s made some of his best films for studios (“Malcolm X” and “Do the Right Thing,” most especially), but as anyone who’s watched one of his documentaries, or his 1996 film, “Get on the Bus,” can vouch for, there’s something about him that comes alive when he’s ultimately responsible for putting the elements together for his films, including getting the money together. As he said when his Kickstarter campaign was going on, he was doing Kickstarter before there was a Kickstarter (it’s how he got the money for his debut film, “She’s Gotta Have It,” together), so it’s good to see him get it done, and get support from his fans. As one of them who helped bring it to the screen, I consider my own, relatively small contribution worth putting in.
