Tuesday, April 3, 2012

MARLEY: A Film to Watch

Yes, I was the woman in the back of the screening room crying at the end of the new Bob Marley biopic, MARLEY. His daughter has a line, a truly poignant moment, at the end of the movie describing how she felt when her father died, and it is heartbreaking.


I'm betting we've all got strong associations with Bob Marley's music. My favorite Bob Marley moment involved dancing at a beach-side bar in Bali in my early twenties with what seemed like a mob of French film directors. It could have been one. Hey, I was 21 and I was in Bali.

But Bob Marley got so much radio air time (at the time he outsold them all in worldwide tours, including the Rolling Stones), that through the years his influence and message got lost in the constant rotation on the airwaves. Seeing it all on screen, however, brings it home again. He was a force to be reckoned with, as they say, and a figure of revolution. The documentary covers all this and more with rare footage, including some truly incredible performance scenes and interviews. Seeing Lee "Scratch" Perry in the studio is a treat, and that's just the beginning of the meaty musician highlights and conversations.

The truly revelatory footage for me were the interviews with the women in Bob Marley's life. This is fascinating stuff. Wife, girlfriends, family, and girlfriends (as one friend said "Bob was a handsome guy") all represent on screen and it fills out the story of the man in a way I've never read before. Some of the most honest, raw emotion in the film comes from his daughter, Cedella Marley. Bob Marley was a huge public figure, a talented musician, a highly spiritual individual, and a father and a husband. MARLEY captures it all and makes a true effort to portray the entire man.




MARLEY released in theaters and Video on Demand on April 20th

1 comments :

Xmastime said...

i dont think it was only you. didnt we all cry when the cute dog died at the end?