Kids, once upon a time, I wanted to be a Rasta. I assume everyone has that fleeting thought at one point or the other but it was my freshman year of college and I was looking for a clean break with high school and something new and so, I looked up Rastafarianism, didn't really understand a lot of it (still don't) and figured that if I was going to do it, I'd need dreadlocks so attempted to grow them. What I ended up with after about a semester of growth was the start of a mullet. I realized that in order to get to ponytail territory, let alone dreadlock territory, I'd need to endure about a year if not longer of mullet territory, I cut my hair. (And got my eyebrow and nipple pierced instead- but not at the same time.)
This movie made me want a job where I could grow dreadlocks, listen to reggae all day and be a Rasta again. I love Bob Marley- the Legends album was part of the discography of our family vacations growing up and well, it's reggae. How can you not like reggae?
What I didn't know what anything about the man himself, Bob Marley. He was born to a white father (Norval Sinclair Marley a plantation overseer, who claimed to be a Captain in the Royal Marines) and a black mother Cedella Booker in 1945. His father provided financial support for his family but Bob didn't see him a lot and his father died of a heart attack when Bob was 10. They moved to Kingston where Marley met Bunny Wailer- and together along with Peter Tosh they eventually formed the core of the Wailers (after some stints as The Teengers, The Wailing Rudeboys and The Wailing Wailers) and spent most of the 60s recording and becoming major stars in their native Jamaica.
1972 proved to be a banner year for Marley and the Wailers- as they signed with Island Records to record an entire album- marking the first time a reggae band/act had accorded the same equipment and financial resources as rock and pop acts. (That album was Catch A Fire.) By 1974 however, the original line-up of the Wailers had broken up with Tosh and Wailer going onto solo projects, while Marley continued to record as Bob Marley and the Wailers.
The back half of the 70s proved to be excellent for Bob Marley's career. He scored an international breakthrough hit with No Woman, No Cry in 1975 though political troubles at home kept him away from Jamaica for awhile. (Marley agreed to do a free concert to calm rising tensions and violence between the rival Jamaican Labor Party and the People's National Party. Someone attempted to assassinate him for it- a second free concert in 1978 saw the leaders of the rival parties come on stage and, at Marley's request join hands.)
In 1977 however, a malignant melanoma was discovered under the toenail of one of Marley's big toes and despite the Doctor's advice to have it amputated, Marley refused and continued to plan and tour. But the cancer spread- and Marley's final concert was in 1980 and he spent much of the next year seeking treatment in Germany but there was nothing they could do. He died in Miami on May 11th, 1981 at the age of 36.
OK, wow- where do I begin with this movie? Documentarians, especially biographical ones tend to say the words 'definitive portrait' an awful lot- but in this case, Kevin McDonald hits the nail on the head. Friends, family, children, girlfriends (Marley had a whopping eleven children by seven different women) all show up in this movie to be interviewed and McDonald really dug deep to produce an amazing portrait of Bob Marley. You see where he lived, where he grew up, there's amazing concert footage and pictures- pretty much everything you wanted to know about Bob Marley but were afraid to ask.
It also makes the spiritual aspects of Marley's music more obvious and explains a lot of what Rastafarians believe- which is aspect of his music I hadn't even considered before, to be totally honest about it.
The cinematography is probably what got me the most though. Long, gorgeous shots flying over the mountains of Jamaica make me want to drop everything, load up the wife and pets and move there to, well, I don't know. Grow dreadlocks and be a 911 Dispatcher I guess? (I'm sure I could come up with some other marketable skills in Jamaica- just give me time.) It looks like an absolutely gorgeous country- almost magical really, which explains a lot about Bob Marley, I think.
Overall: An amazing documentary that's totally worth watching- especially if you're a fan of Marley and his music or just reggae in general. If there's such a thing as a definitive portrait of someone, Kevin MacDonald might just have found it with this amazing film. **** out of ****.
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