JamieNYC

I adore the music of Hector Lavoe and Willie Colon; love salsa dancing; and after 33 years in NYC, anything about my now ex-home. So when Turner Classic Movies ran this flick, I DVR'd it eagerly. Glancing over the preceding reviews, I imagine that Paul Morrissey has numerous articulate and devoted friends -- or maybe since moving out of the city, I have lost my sense of humor. About the only thing I like in this movie is the music, and its nod to the competition between Puerto Rican Fania salsa and Domincan merengue, a battle to the death that merengue won.

It's not my goal to hurt anyone's feelings, so all I'll say is that the actors could have benefited from -- direction -- and maybe a few acting lessons?

I'm old enough to have dug Bob Marley when he was actually alive and performing. AND I was fortunate enough to produce some jingles in Tuff Gong Studio for Air Jamaica. So I was around the scene, post-Marley, and I played his music endlessly for a decade or two.

Then I discovered salsa, and Latin Jazz, and the Afro-Cuban sound, and let my Marley go.

Well, now I have my Marley back. This film took me into parts of Trenchtown, Kingston, Jamaica that I have never seen and never want to see. Even after reading Timothy White's marvelous biography of Marley, "Catch A Fire," I couldn't imagine how horrible Trenchtown was until this movie.

It gave me a deep appreciation for how far this young man traveled in his tragically brief time on this particular planet.

He wasn't nice, he wasn't easy, but he was brilliantly talented and surrounded himself with other talented, fascinating people. Yes, folks are moaning about the movie not having enough music, but ... it has lots of heart and conversation and laughs and empathetic understanding of the Marley story -- and the story of Jamaica, one of the most beautiful and agonizing places I have ever been. I can't recommend this film highly enough. (Gosh, I hope there are no spoilers here. Can you write a spoiler for a documentary of a widely known figure?)