<p> Just as no one could have imagined the impact of a sharecropper's son from East Tupelo, Elvis Presley, nobody dreamed that a boy from the equally obscure and impoverished Nine Miles, Jamaica, would shift the axis of world culture. Bob Marley's remarkable story gets a good overview in <em>Marley</em>, a documentary by Kevin Macdonald, the Oscar-winning director of <em>The Last King of Scotland</em>. It's out Aug. 7 on Blu-ray and DVD. </p> <p><em>Marley</em> has much to offer, including electrifying concert footage and original interviews with people associated with the songwriter, singer and bandleader. Finding his mother and grade school teacher (the boy loved to sing, she recalls), Macdonald brings his camera to Nine Miles, whose verdant hills are dotted with tiny shacks like the one where Marley was raised. Wife Rita Marley and sundry girlfriends, son Ziggy and daughter Cedella are heard from, along with band member Bunny Livingston, producers Lee “Scratch” Perry and Coxsonne Dodd, Island Records' Chris Blackwell and even former Jamaican prime minister Edward Seaga. The birth of ska in the collision of Caribbean tradition with American R&B (with an accent on the off beat) is well handled, and an interesting theory is offered on the origin of reggae. Did the chicka-chicka rhythm really result from the deployment of an unfamiliar new recording device, the tape delay? </p> <p>One could have wished for more, however. The Jamaican political violence that enveloped Marley in the '70s is vividly shown through archival footage, but the explanation by one participant that the Peoples National Party was considered communist and the Jamaican Labour Party fascist hardly begins to illuminate the situation. The importance of Rastafarianism to Marley is central to the documentary, but the origins of the faith aren't carefully considered and the arc of Marley's spiritual journey isn't followed. Footage from his 1981 funeral shows an Ethiopian Orthodox rite being performed around his casket. Why? Much is made of Marley's racially mixed parentage and the uncertain rumors surrounding his British father, who apparently enjoyed the company of black women but not the children he sired. The residents of Nine Miles evidently treated Marley as something of an outcast, yet Macdonald never notes that Jamaicans of mixed heritage often seemed to rise in the post-colonial period. Seaga and his political rival, Michael Manley, could both have “passed” for white in the U.S. True to his beliefs, Marley braved assassination by bringing those two men together onstage during his One Love Peace Concert (1978). Seaga and Manley shook hands awkwardly as Marley gave an ecstatic performance. The long-term result of this gesture of reconciliation is never examined. </p> <p>Marley collapsed in New York City during his 1980 tour and was diagnosed with incurable cancer. Macdonald travels to snowy Bavaria where Marley spent most of his final months at a holistic clinic, hoping for a miracle. The nurse who treated him remembers the singer as “patient” and “always friendly.” On May 11, 1981, the world lost the charismatic artist largely responsible for introducing reggae outside of Jamaica. He was only 36. As <em>Marley</em> makes clear, he had always wanted to reach the widest possible audience and did so without compromising the essence of his music or the faith it was grounded on. His songs remain timeless and inspiring decades later. </p>
