Jun. 27, 2012 - Issue #871: Edmonton 2012
Marley
At just under two and a half hours long, Kevin Macdonald's Marley is a hefty work of biography, a doc that tells more than it spares, that digs both wide and deep into the reggae legend of Bob Marley, peering at the world he existed in as much as at the man himself. It's incredibly informative, and certainly a compelling watch. Whatever the flaws that pop up from its adherence to a straight-through, exhaustively compiled chronology—the sheer volume of it inches toward drawn-out feelings during the quieter moments of Marley's career—they're made up for by the fair-handed sense of the man Marley creates.Macdonald worked with the Marley family, interviewing many of them alongside the Wailers and an unending parade of the people (teachers, friends, children) around ol' Robert, with static talking-head interviews balanced with plenty of archival footage and images and gorgeous modern shots of Jamaica, all in turn scored by Marley's own hazy reggae bounce. The amount of research and care that went into the film yields gems, certainly—hearing how the early Wailers were made to sing in a graveyard at night so they'd be brave enough for the stage, or watching former wives defend his faithlessness ("I became his guardian angel," says one when asked how she coped, as if she was talking about a child who suddenly got too busy for his own good and not her former bethrothed) makes for curious inroads into the life and times of the man as the narrative arcs through him finding his voice, and audience and eventually the tragedy that claimed his life.
Also within that sheer breadth are patches of time that seem to yield little worth knowing—did we need a full couple of minutes describing how they used to play football in the yard?—feeling like they were extended past their necessity. Still, this will undoubtably stand as the definitive look at a musical legend. And in an era where we mostly just skim Wikipedia for tidbits of info and move along, the existence of a true Marley bible seems to carry extra gravitas.
Metro Cinema at the Garneau
vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus
Privacy Policy:
Vue respects your privacy. We will not forward your personal information to any other organization except as required by law, and will use your e-mail address only to respond to your comments. We reserve the right to edit and remove comments for length, clarity and/or if they are illegal or inappropriate. Your email address is never shown to visitors to vueweekly.com. Read the whole policy at: http://vueweekly.com/privacy
Comments policy
Comments go online directly without first being seen or reviewed by editors at Vue. Don't personally attack people, don't be defamatory, don't be spam-atory, don't hawk your band, don't pretend to be someone else, be clear, be on topic, be nice. Read our extended comments policy here. »
We use Disqus for our comments system. What's that all about?
We found that managing the comment community at Vue was easier to do with a system like Disqus. If this isn't straightforward to you, get help here.