Thirty one years after Robert Nesta Marley's life ended prematurely, the "Legend" of Bob Marley lives on. As his comprehensive greatest hits album title suggests, this legacy has thrived since Marley's death, and made him one of the most well known musicians and activists of our age. One of only two reggae artists in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and credited for helping define and popularize the genre, Marley was not only an incredible musician, but was also a deeply spiritual man, whose drive and political views helped him to become an icon in our world today.

If you look at the popular worldview of Marley today, it has unfortunately become that of only a pot-smoking Rastafarian, who wanted to help the world mellow out and live in peace, but director Kevin MacDonald's documentary seeks to set the record straight. MacDonald, whose other docs include the worldwide, real-time social experiment Life in a Day, and his widely successful biopic of Idi Amin, The Last King of Scotland, set out to create the definitive documentary on the life of Bob Marley. By enlisting the help of those closest to him, including his wife, kids, band members, and friends, MacDonald's 145-minute film feels completely exhaustive, and leaves no subject uncovered.

Robert Nesta Marley was born in rural Nine Mile, Jamaica in 1945 to a sixteen year-old local girl, Cedella, and a white British man, "Captain" Norval Marley, who was in his late sixties. The father was absent most of Bob's life, and being of mixed descent, or "half-caste," Bob grew up alienated and rejected by those around him. Taking early to music, as revealed in the interview of his grade school teacher, he saw the drum, rumba box, banjo, and "shake shake" as his escape from his humble beginnings and a "way out."

The movie chronicles Marley's life from those early days, on through the formation of the Wailers, with Bunny Livingston and Peter Tosh, the groundbreaking transformation of ska to reggae and Jamaica's adoption of the genre as a national rhythm, and subsequent success worldwide. By taking the viewer to Marley's early childhood home, and through interviews with Livingston, his wife Rita, and even early footage of Bob himself, MacDonald captures a very intimate picture of a life often shrouded in mystery, chronologically taking us down the path Marley walked to become the man he was. Backed by rare music tracks as a backbeat to Marley's life, as well as early concert footage, the melodies play an extremely important character in the film as well.

One theme that continually stood out was Bob Marley's faith and dedication to Rastafarianism. A friend spoke on Marley's lack of a father figure leading him to seek out religion to fill that hole in his life, and Marley saw Rastafari as a liberating religion, and a "way out" of the oppressive economic system of Jamaica. His belief that the "purpose of life is to be happy and to live in unity" was apparent in everything he did, and always the central message he sought to spread through his music, even when it didn't sell records.

Continue: 1 2