Premiering at the Berlin Film Festival is Marley, director Kevin MacDonald’s biopic which promises to shed a new light on the Reggae superstar. The backbone of the production is a lush smorgasbord of interviews featuring people important to his life including widow Rita, a couple of his dozen or so children, his mother, and the one surviving “Wailer” (the Wailers being Marley’s background singers). The film promises a clearer view of the legend, not just another indulgently narcissistic homage to the foremost instigator of ganja legalization legislature in the world. Marley continues to sell millions of records each decade preceding his premature death at 36 in 1981, which is all the more poignantly contrasted with the film’s exposition of his exceedingly humble beginnings and struggle to achieve fame. The film though nothing short of conventional, strives to portray the definitive life story of a legend, and in doing so, creates biopic movie magic of the first caliber which touches on Marley’s life, loves, and most importantly, the philosophy that shaped his much copied lifestyle.
