More than 30 years after his death, Bob Marley remains one of the most loved and influential musicians in the world.
“Marley,” a new documentary by filmmaker Kevin MacDonald (“The Last King of Scotland,” chronicles the reggae superstar”s exceedingly humble roots in Jamaica through his rise to global icon and his untimely death at only 36 in 1981.
The movie opens in theaters tomorrow (4/20), but will also stream on Bob Marley’s Facebook page. Proceeds from the Facebook sales will go to Save The Children.
MacDonald focuses not only on Marley”s music, but his lifestyle (he fathered 11 children with seven women), and the influence he had throughout the world, primarily the third world, as a symbol of peace, love, and equality. The film also examines how Marley was savvy enough, at a very young age, to realize how politicians tried to exploit his popularity for their own gain, as well as the assassination attempt on his life two nights before his free concert in Jamaica.
Marley”s son, Ziggy, served as one of the film”s executive producers. After false starts by both Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Demme, Ziggy says he felt MacDonald captured the right “emotional” beats of Marley”s life. “We met with Kevin and whenI saw the first cut, we knew this decision was a good decision… it had emotional impact. I like that…I”ve never seen anything with my father that has emotional impact before.”
Both Ziggy and Robbie share in their interview with Hitfix that the doc footage covering the end stages of their father”s life, while he battled cancer in Germany, was, understandably, the hardest to watch (Both were very young when Marley died: Ziggy was 12, Robbie was 9). In fact, they advised their sister, Cedella, who is very outspoken in the movie about how difficult it was to share her father with the rest of the world, not to see the movie.