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Music

Moved by a Screening of Marley

The cool thing about life is that you can write an article defending reggae then a week later find yourself sitting at your very first press screening alongside Bob Marley’s grandkids.

The cool thing about life is that you can write an article defending reggae then a week later find yourself sitting at your very first press screening alongside Bob Marley’s grandkids.

Directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void, Life in a DayMarley attempts to do what so many documentaries have failed to do—bring us a deeper emotional understanding of Bob Marley, the man behind the legend.

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After the credits ended and light filled the theater (stay for the credits, it's a touching montage of people around the world enjoying Marley's music) I felt a glowing calm, as if I had just meditated. As I walked to the subway I realized I was experiencing an element of Marley that the film shed light on, Marley's role as a spiritual leader, his message preserved through his music.

The scene in the film which best depicts this is the Smile Jamaica Concert, which took place two days after Bob, Rita, and the Wailers had been gunned down as part of an assassination attempt on Bob. Marley's importance to the Jamaican people came with unforeseen consequences, hurling him into the middle of Jamaica's bloody political war. It was widely speculated that the assassination attempt came from one of the two primary political parties, the PNP and the JLP, each scared that Marley was supporting the other. Despite his gun shot wounds, he played. On stage at Smile Jamaica he whips into a frenzy of positive, powerful energy. Drenched in sweat, he grabs the hands of the opposing politicians who have joined him on stage and shoves them up to the sky in a breathtaking image.

Searching for insight into his early life, the filmmakers go to the back woods of Jamaica, Nine Mile, where Bob grew up. You learn of the community rejection he experienced as a child for being a half-breed, mixed race. (FYI, Bob’s Dad is a white guy called “Captain” who hit and split). Distant relatives of Bob’s who still live in Nine Mile are interviewed, smoking a spliff, sipping on beer in a handmade rickety wooden island bar, smiling so big you wonder what secret they know about living that you don’t. Rita Marley recalls that all young girls in Jamaica want a big tall black boyfriend, a description Bob did not fit, but she was smart enough to sense his spark. As Rita puts it, he didn't want to define himself as one race, only (wait for it…) one love.

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You learn of the Wailers' rise to fame, dealing with the same music industry struggles most new artists experience. A story is told of how young Bob would convince the Wailers to go practice in a graveyard, play for “duppy.” (Duppy is a term for an evil spirit.) “I’m a duppy conqueror, conqueror…”  He figured if they could become comfortable performing for duppies then a bunch of humans would be nothing.

One of the best moments in the film is when the filmmakers play "Corner Stone" for Bob’s close white cousin Peter, and Bob’s white half sister Constance. The story goes Bob wrote “Corner Stone” after a disappointing attempt to approach his white kin, who owned a building company in Jamaica. "The stone that the builder refuse will always be the head cornerstone." As Constance points out with great insight, Bob couldn't have predicted it better. Through his music (not to mention his many offspring) Bob is now, and likely always will be, the most important Marley in the world.

Unprecedented insight into the man behind the legend? Maybe not. I left with more questions about Bob than answers. Not for failure of the filmmakers, but it was as if every stone overturned was masked in smoke of the finest ganja. I'll stop myself before I begin analyzing the man, hundreds more qualified than I have tried and failed. Yet you hear Marley speaking of how little race matters, yet getting upset that there aren't enough black Americans at his shows. You learn of the strict Rastafarian rules he would impose on women in his legendary home 56 Hope Road, no make-up, no pants, they must dress in skirts, all vanities are frowned upon. Yet his most well-known girlfriend and father to Damien Marley is Cindy Breakspeare, a beauty pageant contestant and model who was crowned Miss World in 1976. Mind you, there is a rather amusing moment when Cindy recalls going to the bathroom to scrub off her make-up each night before Bob would see her. Marley handles Bob’s many affairs with artistic grace. Despite obvious pain to the ego, Rita was able to stay by Bob’s side through it all because her love was so deep and she knew his world message was more important than his bedroom activities. She became more his “guardian angel” rather than his wife. (They don’t mention it in the film, but keep in mind Rita had affairs of her own, some which resulted in children, which Bob would later adopt as his own).

Between Marley’s music, Jamaican scenery, and the colorful cast of characters, the filmmakers had a lot to work with. In a personal favorite moment, a rare gospel version of "No Woman No Cry" plays over aerial shots of the striking mountains of Jamaica—then cut to iconic black and white portraits of Marley. In his interviews Bunny Wailer sits dressed like a Rastafarian prince, clutching a pipe made out of a carrot (his name is bunny). A camera follows the carefree strut of a Rasta winding his way through the of galvalume shanty walls of Trenchtown. Despite the lingering questions about Bob himself, the film surpasses getting your Marley fix and provides intelligent, artistic insight into reggae music, Rastafarianism, and Jamaican politics. Anyone who has been touched by a Bob Marley song (which is everyone, admit it, you dark angsty hipsters) should go see this film. I can't wait to take my boyfriend and watch him ear squint trying to follow the accents.

Marley hits theaters April 20th.

@TheBowieCat