For the record, it's English. I was born in Tilbury, Essex, made temporarily 
American citizen?"
Running at almost two and a half hours but feeling much shorter, Marley is a remarkable documentary. It took Scottish director Kevin Macdonald almost two years to make, but with access to some wonderful archival material and authorized to use much of Marley’s music, the documentary is an astonishing achievement and perhaps among the best of its kind.
I’ll come clean and admit upfront I was never a fan of Bob Marley or his music – I never warmed to reggae - yet Macdonald’s ambitious project grips from the beginning, perhaps because it never shies away from Marley’s negative aspects as well as his achievements; this is a genuine warts ‘n all documentary and you can’t help but be riveted.
Born in
Perhaps it was this rejection as a child that explained his point of view when he became a father himself. Although married to Rita, Marley had eleven children from seven relationships. Most of the other children in the neighborhood were not allowed to play with Marley’s children, but Marley is quoted as having told them that, “You don’t need friends; you have your brothers and sisters.”
Being a father to so many children from so many affairs caused problems. In a series of interviews that never holds back on the criticism, one child, now grown, calls Marley’s approach to fatherhood as “Rough.” One of the mothers describes Marley as “Selfish,” while one of his daughters declares, “I wouldn’t stand for it.” On the other hand, his wife, Rita, appears to take a more relaxed attitude to the affairs. She describes herself as Marley’s “Guardian angel,” someone who would rescue her husband from other women when Marley was tired of being with them and wanted them out of his room.
The music is, of course, the film’s center. We’re treated to several lengthy clips of Marley in concert and we see the often mesmerizing impact his music and message of peace had on others. The beat of reggae is described in one interview as a rhythm of life; the drums are the heartbeat, the bass is the backbone. Particularly interesting is hearing the rare demo of No Woman, No Cry with Peter Tosh on the piano.
His early death appears to have come about through negligence. Marley ignores early symptoms of malignant melanoma and a cancer that finally claimed him at the age of only 36. It is only during the final stages of his cancer when his body was already wracked by the disease that Marley moved to a clinic in
During the final moments, the documentary quotes Marley with the following words: “I don’t really have no ambition, you know. I only have one thing I’d like to see happen. I’d like to see mankind live together, black, white, Chinese. That’s all.”
If you, like me, were never a fan of the performer in the first place, the documentary won’t necessarily change any minds, but as a work of cinematic art, Marley is a genuine triumph. For me, the fact that it held my interest throughout on a subject that was not initially of interest is testament to just how accomplished and thorough this work is.
