"MARLEY" FILLED WITH HEART
Of course there is a dark side to reggae
world star Bob Marley – we just don’t know what it is. Watching “Marley” at the
Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd., we don’t care, either.
This film assembled from many disparate parts feels as intimate as a family’s video album, full of quotes from good friends and relatives telling little tales about Bob, but always with the most loving respect. Boasting a running time of 144 minutes, you will leave the theater wanting to buy the video.
The project has an impressive lineage as it was originally begun in 2008 by the indie giant Weinstein Company with Martin Scorsese the director. When Scorsese left a short time later because of “scheduling conflicts,” Jonathan Demme stepped in. But he had artistic differences with producer Steve Bing and dropped out.
Finally, Kevin Macdonald (“The Last King of Scotland”) was the one who not only save the project but turned it into a wholly engaging documentary about a poor kid born into Jamaica’s rural poverty who become a high profile leader for world peace among all races.
Macdonald hangs his story on Marley’s scruffy childhood as a social outcast because he had a white father and a black mother. The struggle not only made the boy tougher (and extremely competitive as a playground soccer player) but also turned Marley’s natural musical talent into a weapon of revolution.
Most remarkable, perhaps, is how Macdonald obtained the approval of all the extended family members and others to get the complere music rights and release this film. Marley fathered 11 children with several women, included Miss World of 1976 Cindy Breakspeare and Marley’s devoted wife Rita.
Both women get ample screen time. While their stories are quite different, it is clear that both still have much admiration for their man.
Other members of Marley’s original band, the Wailers, and a couple of other childhood friends offer some telling memories of the early teen years in Kingston’s impoverished neighborhoods. Remarkably, some genuinely rare footage of Marley and his mates just hanging out, being kids, are some of the film’s most insightful moments.
It was from these roots, and the musician’s own longing, that he would become the healer – able to project from the stage an urgency to break down the walls of divisiveness not just in Jamaica, or Europe or the United States but in every nation.
Reggae’s association with marijuana is well-known, as is Marley’s association with reggae. But the film goes to some length to disconnect Marley’s association with marijuana. He was not a user, we are told.
When the Wailers toured Japan, the Japanese anti-drug squads were determined to arrest the band members for something, but the inspectors never found anything illegal.
As a member of the Rastafarian religion, and a worshiper of Haile Selassie the emperor of Ethiopia, using cannabis for spiritual purposes is encouraged. But no conflicts are ever discussed which stemmed from this difference of opinion among countries where the plant is outlawed.
Maybe such shortcomings are a whitewash (if you’ll pardon the expression), but the music is terrific, the archival film footage is wonderful, the concert sequences are sweeping and the whole spirit of “Marley” will just carry you up in its call for “one love.”
This film assembled from many disparate parts feels as intimate as a family’s video album, full of quotes from good friends and relatives telling little tales about Bob, but always with the most loving respect. Boasting a running time of 144 minutes, you will leave the theater wanting to buy the video.
The project has an impressive lineage as it was originally begun in 2008 by the indie giant Weinstein Company with Martin Scorsese the director. When Scorsese left a short time later because of “scheduling conflicts,” Jonathan Demme stepped in. But he had artistic differences with producer Steve Bing and dropped out.
Finally, Kevin Macdonald (“The Last King of Scotland”) was the one who not only save the project but turned it into a wholly engaging documentary about a poor kid born into Jamaica’s rural poverty who become a high profile leader for world peace among all races.
Macdonald hangs his story on Marley’s scruffy childhood as a social outcast because he had a white father and a black mother. The struggle not only made the boy tougher (and extremely competitive as a playground soccer player) but also turned Marley’s natural musical talent into a weapon of revolution.
Most remarkable, perhaps, is how Macdonald obtained the approval of all the extended family members and others to get the complere music rights and release this film. Marley fathered 11 children with several women, included Miss World of 1976 Cindy Breakspeare and Marley’s devoted wife Rita.
Both women get ample screen time. While their stories are quite different, it is clear that both still have much admiration for their man.
Other members of Marley’s original band, the Wailers, and a couple of other childhood friends offer some telling memories of the early teen years in Kingston’s impoverished neighborhoods. Remarkably, some genuinely rare footage of Marley and his mates just hanging out, being kids, are some of the film’s most insightful moments.
It was from these roots, and the musician’s own longing, that he would become the healer – able to project from the stage an urgency to break down the walls of divisiveness not just in Jamaica, or Europe or the United States but in every nation.
Reggae’s association with marijuana is well-known, as is Marley’s association with reggae. But the film goes to some length to disconnect Marley’s association with marijuana. He was not a user, we are told.
When the Wailers toured Japan, the Japanese anti-drug squads were determined to arrest the band members for something, but the inspectors never found anything illegal.
As a member of the Rastafarian religion, and a worshiper of Haile Selassie the emperor of Ethiopia, using cannabis for spiritual purposes is encouraged. But no conflicts are ever discussed which stemmed from this difference of opinion among countries where the plant is outlawed.
Maybe such shortcomings are a whitewash (if you’ll pardon the expression), but the music is terrific, the archival film footage is wonderful, the concert sequences are sweeping and the whole spirit of “Marley” will just carry you up in its call for “one love.”
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