Marley: Collector's Edition (2DVD)

Bob Marley
Marley: 2 DVD Collector's Edition
Tuff Gong Worldwide
2025

There have been other works devoted to Bob Marley ostensibly as comprehensive as Academy Award-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald's picturesque historical film Marley. But the addition of this absorbing piece to a list including, but hardly limited to, Timothy White's print biography Catch A Fire (Elm Tree Books, 1983) and the 2024 biopic Bob Marley: One Love (Paramount Pictures, 2024), only clarifies the depth and range of impact by an artist whose stature as a cultural icon commands attention in all available media.

The vivid scenery of Jamaica filling the early minutes here complements the graphic verbal descriptions of Bob Marley's early life. Photos of the young man reveal a visage as resolute as that of the older figure depicted in video and other images later in life. And the integration of musical interludes within the narrative furthers the implication of how indispensable that art form is to the lifestyle of the nation.

Interestingly, during the interview interludes, the thick patois in the speech of Marley himself as well as original Wailer Bunny is less decipherable than peers including Jimmy Cliff, star of 1972 movie The Harder They Come (New World Pictures, 1972); the occasional subtitles are helpful in this regard and might well be one of the six-plus special features available on both menus of the discs in this set.

First released in 2012 and reissued in 2025 in celebration of Marley's 80th birthday, the main content just shy of two-and-a-half hours running time allows for detailed description of the gestation of reggae as a natural outgrowth of Marley and his contemporaries' love of rhythm & blues, soul and jazz. Elements of doo-wop present in Ska music—an early instance of which is Millie Small's 1964 hit "My Boy Lollypop"—distinguished this more pop-oriented genre from its rootsy counterpart practiced by the Wailers.

Likewise, the Wailers' rise to international fame unfolds as if through destiny, at least with insight from Island Records founder Chris Blackwell. The latter's impetus to shape the group as a rock act via overdubs by American session musicians on the fifth Wailers album Catch A Fire (Island, 1973) correlated to Bob Marley's ambition, but it was a viewpoint not all members of the group shared.

The second disc of this Collector's Edition consists of interviews conducted by Ziggy Marley, son of this film's subject. Suggesting exactly how wide was/is the demographic reach of Marley's work, the free-flowing, good-humored conversations are really more monologues than dialogues in which the offspring participates, but they nonetheless supply ratification of the music's appeal to various social classes in Jamaica and around the world (distinctly beyond the strict ethos of Rastafarianism rooted in Marley's native country).

Explanatory notes in some form would further help delineate the range of personalities those demographics represent. Addendum to the introductory headlines for each segment would also be helpful in comprehending each individual's significance in Marley's life such as Miss World Cindy Brakespeare (with whom Marley was involved), long-time attorney Diane Jobson and the reggae icon's wife Rita (a member of the I-Threes female vocal troupe who became an integral part of the Wailers ensemble in 1974).

Writer/director Kevin Macdonald handles the political manifestations of Marley's persona with admirable delicacy, especially during the segment dealing with the 1976 shooting that occurred prior to a highly-charged concert in Jamaica. Equally discreet is the filmmaker's approach to Marley's ultimately futile battle with cancer: the inexorable sequence of events, including conflicting diagnoses and treatments, unfolds as an instructive rather than melodramatic phase of the man's life.

Similarly, revelations of Marley's charisma arise from photographic and cinematic scenes of high-profile tour stops in Europe and especially back home in Kingston for the notable 'One Love' concert. Marley's maturity as an artist and a celebrity coalesced during his 1980 performance at Zimbabwe's independence celebration: his spiritual beliefs engendered more practical activist manifestations besides the growing preponderance of Caucasians at his concerts during this period.

Oddly missing much chronicling of his creative evolution as captured in his discography of studio and live releases (and wisely avoiding much plumbing of the depths of conflict regarding the posthumous state of his affairs), Marley is nonetheless compelling from start to finish. And the extra content in this package is only slightly less so: as the tale dovetails with the last difficult months of the reggae pioneer's life, the denouement is all the more poignant.

Ultimately, the documentary represents an essential piece of history fully in keeping with Bob Marley's rarefied station in the upper echelons of 20th century global fame and prestige.

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