Features

Bob Marley Biopic Receives Welcome Reissue

by Tom Haugen

Originally released in 2012, Kevin MacDonald’s biographical film Marley received a re-release from Tuff Gong Productions in time for Bob Marley’s 80th birthday in 2025, and includes two hours of never before seen interviews with family and friends of the icon.

Marley is a really thorough documentary that spends plenty of time with people close to the artist. Bunny Wailer, Rita Marley, Ziggy Marley, Peter Tosh, Cindy Breakspeare and Lee “Scratch” Perry, among others, all provide insight, and the storyline goes back to Marley’s formative years and the lackluster attention paid to his initial solo work.

Once Marley aligned himself with Wailer and Peter Tosh, he made a name for himself globally, and subsequently brought Jamaica, reggae and Rastafarianism into the spotlight.

The film does a great job of exploring Marley's constant struggle with race and acceptance. His iconoclastic spirit, an aspect of his artistry that made him so famous, also left him alienated, and the fact that his father was white and his mother was black also brought him tension from others.

The circumstances surrounding Marley's death, which have often been debated, are addressed. Due to his religious beliefs, when faced with a diagnosis of cancer in his toe, Marley didn’t want to amputate and pursued less severe treatment, but it eventually spread throughout his body. He eventually succumbed to it in 1981.

The film includes more than 60 Marley songs and saw very positive reviews across the board. It remains an integral part of his legacy, and exits on a quote that sums up his life’s work simply and eloquently: “I don’t really have any ambition, you know? I only have one thing I’d like to see happen. I’d like to see mankind living together. Black, White, Chinese, everyone. That’s all.”

Wise words indeed that are still, unfortunately, very much relevant all these decades later.