http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/movies/2018024236_mr20marley.html?prmid=head_main
Bob Marley documentary long but amazing
"Marley," a new documentary by Kevin Macdonald, is a bit long but amazing in its scope, detail and beauty. The movie is playing at Seattle's Varsity.
By GENE STOUT
Special to The Seattle Times
COURTESY OF MAGNOLIA PICTURES
Bob Marley was as much a spiritual leader for fellow Jamaicans as he was a music star.
Movie review
'Marley' a documentary directed by Kevin Macdonald. 145 minutes. Rated PG-13 for drug content, thematic elements and some violent images. Varsity.
Even those who know reggae star Bob Marley inside and out might be amazed by the scope, detail and beauty of "Marley," a documentary directed by Kevin Macdonald ("One Day in September," "The Last King of Scotland".
Beginning with the singer's hardscrabble childhood in the Trench Town district of Kingston, Jamaica, and ending with his early death from cancer in 1981 at age 36, the documentary provides a vivid and intimate portrait of the reggae colossus through the recollections of friends, family members and fellow musicians.
Among those relating stories about Marley are wife Rita Marley; girlfriend Cindy Breakspeare (Miss World 1976 and mother of Damian Marley); producer Chris Blackwell of Island Records; and Wailers percussionist Bunny Wailer, who provides some of the film's most colorful and insightful stories about Marley and his longtime band.
The prejudice Marley endured as a boy for being "half-caste" — he was the son of a black woman and an itinerant white man, Capt. Norval Marley — is told compellingly by friends and family members, including a number of half-siblings who shared the same father.
The experience helped shape Marley's view of humanity, as expressed in such songs as "One Love" and "Cornerstone," along with his conversion to Rastafarianism at a young age. Indeed, Marley was as much a spiritual leader for fellow Jamaicans as he was an innovative musician who elevated reggae to the world stage. Nothing better illustrates his desire to unify fellow Jamaicans than his insistence on performing a hometown concert after he was nearly assassinated by a gunman from one of two rival gangs.
The film opens with aerial footage of the lush, hilly terrain of Saint Ann Parish, where Marley was born, and ends with stirring footage of some of his final concerts. But at a running length of nearly 2 ½ hours, the film is best suited for Marley's most devoted fans.
Gene Stout: gene@genestout.com
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/story/2012-04-20/marley-documentary-ziggy-marley/54435508/1
'Marley' is a warts-and-all winner of a film
By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY
Updated 1d 12h ago
Comments
Bob Marley was one those singers whose name rivaled his music. By the time cancer took him at age 36 in 1981, he was as much a political symbol as a poetic songwriter.
Magnolia Pictures
Sprinkled with riffs, concert footage and home videos, the family-authorized documentary 'Marley' gives the most complete picture of the artist to date.
Magnolia Pictures
Sprinkled with riffs, concert footage and home videos, the family-authorized documentary 'Marley' gives the most complete picture of the artist to date.
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Marley (***½ stars out of four; PG-13; opens Friday in select cities), an astounding documentary from TheLast King of Scotland director Kevin Macdonald, evens out the legend some by supplementing the music with archival footage and a portrait of Marley's squalid Jamaican home that makes his rise to fame all the more astounding.
Sprinkled with riffs, concert footage and home videos, the family-authorized documentary does what the artist usually did: When in doubt, return to the beat. The singer, Marley asserts, was more than a deft musician. He knew the political power of music and was unafraid to wield it.
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Far from his image as the pot-smoking reggae king, the singer comes off as a savvy businessman and an artist who understood marketing. Marley shuttled his Wailers bandmates in a bus to Jamaican clubs and sometimes played for free in order to get their music heard.
Macdonald's warts-and-all approach makes Marley sing. Blended with the beats are harsh realities: Marley's children paint him as a hyper-competitive dad, one who didn't slow down in a foot race with first-graders. The movie does a nice job of capturing the tension between Marley and Peter Tosh, who left the band in 1974.
About the movie Marley ***1/2 out of four
Stars: Bob Marley, Ziggy Marley, Jimmy Cliff
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Rating: PG-13 for drug content, thematic elements and some violent images
Running time: 2 hours and 24 minutes
Opens today in select cities
The film also captures the near unspeakable poverty that surrounded Marley — he was born in a single-room hut to a teenage Jamaican mother and a white 60-year-old captain in the British marines — and explores his outcast status for being bi-racial and Rastafarian.
Still, the film demonstrates, Marley muted his anger through music and kept the peace lyrically to become reggae's musical and political king. Halfway into Marley, you see how the man would become as big as his work.