Review No.77: Marley

Over to Jamaica for a bit now as we begin Kevin MacDonald's extensive biographical documentary of the life of reggae icon Bob Marley. The film tracks Marley's life from his poor upbringing in Jamaica's Trench Town to his show-stopping performance with The Wailers at Madison Square Garden before finally covering in detail his untimely death at the age of just 36. I obviously had a smattering of knowledge about Marley in so much as I knew quite a lot of his songs and about his Rastafarian beliefs but I wasn't aware of his background or upbringing so MacDonald's film did shed light on a lot of these topics of course MacDonald is quite adept at telling a story in the documentary format as was witnessed in his award winning Touching the Void and last year in the under-appreciated Life in a Day. I didn't know for example that Marley was mixed-race his father being an army captain being neither black nor white meant that he came in for some abuse at school but grew stronger from his experiences. While in Jamaica he also learnt to express himself through music and fell in love with Rita, who later became his backing singer, with them marrying before he went over to America. Eventually Bob Marley and The Wailers became a big deal especially after signing a deal with Island Records which meant they could tour around the world. At the same time we learnt of some of Bob's personal struggles such as his involvement in Jamaica's gang warfare as well as being rejected by his biological father but through both of these incidents he was able to create music to express himself. He was also able to use his music to unite the two opposing political forces in Jamaica hosting a peace treaty concert to get them to reconcile which bizarrely did the job. Finishing off the film was his tragic final months as cancer took over his body he moved to Germany to attempt to be healed by a ground-breaking doctor however it was too little, too late and Marley passed away in 1981.

After only a few moments watching Marley you can tell that this has been a labour of love for MacDonald who has obviously spent years editing together concert footage, personal pictures of Marley and vocal recordings of his interviews in addition to interviewing dozens of talking heads. Among those interviewed include his wife Rita, his children, his half-siblings, his band-mates, producers and head of Island Records Chris Blackwell who along with Ziggy Marley executive produced the film. Blackwell and Ziggy's involvement in the film meant that Bob's extensive back catalogue can be used to illustrate various points in his life and the music he wrote to reflect how he was feeling. The use of some of the songs to reflect personal moments in his life provide many poignant moments during the film with one of my highlights being when his step-siblings listen to the song 'Cornerstone' which was written after their father rejected Bob after he tracked him down for the first time. A lot of the critics have bought up the fact that MacDonald's love of Marley has meant that he doesn't dig deep enough into some of the less appealing characteristics of the man including his fathering of several illegitimate children as well as his tempremental nature which caused his relationship with Island Records to fragment. This is certainly hinted at through the fact that he denied he was married to Rita and also that Ziggy called his father 'a rough man' however the former is brushed under the carpet as Bob's affairs are explained by the fact that fidelity is 'a western ideal' with Rita acting as his guardian angel rather than his wife. These criticisms aside what can't be denied is that Marley is an excellently produced documentary which never feels overlong despite coming in at well over two hours. At times I had a smile on my face and other times I was close to tears but what really made me joyful was listening to his music with MacDonald's film definitely wanting to make me check out some more of Marley's back catalogue. The abiding message here though seemed to be that if Marley had gone for regular check-ups with his doctors after they discovered the cancer he may well still be with us so remember folks always see your GP on a regular basis!

Verdict: A labour of love that never feels overlong this wonderful documentary contains some great music however at times I felt it was a little one-sided therefore I will award it 8.5/10