Grass, A Film by Ron Mann

Grass: Reviewed by James Newman in Images: A Journal of Film and Popular Culture

Many documentary filmmakers prefer to let their subject tell the story. They train their camera on their interviewees who then talk about some aspect of the subject at hand. Or the filmmakers train their cameras directly on their subject, be it a person, a place, an animal, or etc., and they let the subject speak for itself. Documentary filmmaker Ron Mann, however, prefers to take charge of his films by adopting the perspective of a historian. His films are frequently educational in tone. They strive to tell the history of specific subjects, such as the use of marijuana in America (as in Mann's Grass) and the development of rock'n'roll dance crazes in the '50s and '60s (as in Mann's Twist). In this respect, Mann is somewhat like America's most famous documentary filmmaker, Ken Burns. However, Mann is a very pithy (and more irreverent) version of Burns. While Burns' films typically involve multiple chapters and gargantuan running times, Mann's films zip past us, lasting less than 90 minutes. And while Burns typically adopts a respectful, non-judgmental tone, Mann isn't above playing fast and loose with the facts in order to generate laughs.

Mann also utilizes an array of digital effects to help liven his history lessons. In Comic Book Confidential, for example, Mann utilizes a montage of comic book characters, who come to life and slide past Mann's camera as it journeys through the land of comic books. And in Grass, Mann's most recent documentary, we're treated to a sumptuous barrage of animated drug paraphernalia. Mann makes full use of the technical gadgetry at his disposal to help convey his stories.

Mann first built his reputation in the early '80s when he was in his twenties, with films such as Poetry in Motion and Comic Book Confidential. His films have earned him two Genie Awards -- the Canadian equivalent of an Oscar. Now, Home Vision Entertainment is releasing Mann's films on DVD....

With Grass, Ron Mann tackles the history of marijuana usage in America and the corresponding ongoing war waged against marijuana by law enforcement and the U.S. government. Much of the screen time if devoted to the efforts of Harry Anslinger, Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from the '30s through the '50s.

Mann frequently plays fast and loose with some of the film clips. For example, immediately after discussing that President Gerald Ford authorized the spraying of Mexican fields with a military defoliant, Mann inserts the famous video footage of Gerald Ford slipping and falling while disembarking an airplane. What does this have to do with marijuana? Nothing. But it helps contribute to the movie's contention that the U.S. government is frequently incompetent. But irregardless of such efforts to rig the argument in marijuana's favor (and maybe because of it), Mann's storytelling is absorbing -- and frequently hilarious, as when we see Ronald Reagan arguing that marijuana causes the loss of memory.

With Woody Harrelson providing the narration, Mann mixes film footage with marvelous animation by underground artist Paul Mavrides. In addition, Mann draws from a first-class selection of soundtrack songs, such as Mark Mothersbaugh's "Quit Playing Games With God!" (which serves as the movie's theme song) and Cab Calloway's "Reefer Man."

Grass is arguably Mann's most technically impressive movie. He deftly mixes graphics with liberal doses of newsreel footage and government films, as well as choice clips from such notorious drug-scare movies as Reefer Madness and Damaged Lives.

Home Vision's DVD presentation of Grass is somewhat thin on extras, compared to the other three Ron Mann releases. You get a gallery of magazine art from High Times and a state-by-state guide to marijuana laws (provided by NORML -- The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws). The disc includes a deleted scene: an alternate opening sequence in which the camera follows a joint as it makes the rounds at a party.