mjp
Founding member
Saw this a couple of weeks ago. It's hard to believe that Bob has been dead for more than 30 years now.
MacDonald has made a beautiful film that touches on a lot of the things that other Marley documentaries and biographies have covered, but this is far and away the most artful of all of them.
It's always great to hear Bunny wailer talk about the Wailers, or anything for that matter. He's an animated and entertaining storyteller, and he's got a great memory. A lot of people are interviewed in the film, including Bob's brother from the white side of the family.
That's something that I think shocked a lot of the people in the audience at the screening I saw, hearing that Marley was shunned for much of his young life in Jamaica because his father was white. Bunny puts it very bluntly, saying that it wasn't a question of people being a little bit cruel, they just outright rejected him. Such was life in Jamaica back then, and still somewhat to this day.
It's a long film, at 2 1/2 hours, but it never seems to drag. I can't really give a good objective view of the thing though, because I don't think I'm the target audience. This is more for people with a casual interest, or people who just enjoy his music but haven't read anything about him or really checked out his life.
But if that's you, you'll dig this. It's jam-packed and nice to look at (and hear). A lot is left unsaid, but that's the case with any documentary or biography, isn't it. You can't really sum up a life and career like his in a couple of hours.
But you should definitely see it if you have a chance. A glimpse of something great that will never come down the pike again. And by that I mean the man and the music, and that wildly creative period of the history of this world before we all got computers.
On a side note, the company that put this out, Magnolia, also put out Born Into This and a ton of other good movies. When I see the Magnolia logo on something these days I know it's going to be a quality show.