Time Will Tell (1992)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Declan Lowney

Release Date:

28 May 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography | Music

Tagline:

Celebrating the Life and Music of a Legend

Plot:

The life story of Nesta Robert Marley, Rastafarian prophet who with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer brought...

Plot Keywords:

Jamaica | Interview | Rastafarian | Reggae | Song

Cast

Bob Marley

...

Himself (uncredited)

Also Known As:

Bob Marley: Time Will Tell

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:M

Company:

Island Pictures

Marley and his critics

TIME WILL TELL, while possessing none of the insights offered by narrator and Pan African activist Darcus Howe in the earlier Marley documentary THE BOB MARLEY STORY/CARRIBBEAN NIGHTS, is a lovely package documenting some of Marley's more remarkable concert appearances.

CLR James observed in the mid 1970s that the Rastafarian movement and its music did more to raise world consciousness of the political aspirations of the various revolutionary nationalist movements of the last century then had decades of theoretical work by the original PanAfrican movement. If that was true- and it probably was at the time of James' quote- then it is good to have a record of the cultural phenomenon that Marley became. TIME WILL TELL, for better or worse, is one such record. Perhaps it does fawn on its subject, as one other reviewer notes for some length here. But here's a question for that person: what else ya got? The hard cold fact of the matter is that Rastafarianism has always provided to Black people world wide a religion of self-love, as well as some cultural and political orientation that makes sense for millions. Marley, whether his critics would have it so or not, was a prophet of the faith, in fact, his Coptic name in the tradition was Berhanie Selassie, or Light of the Trinity. He did not pose as such in his own lifetime, and if he was self-aggrandizing at some levels, it should be noted that modesty and great gifts rarely settle on one person. Besides, as the old saw goes, it's not bragging if you can walk your talk. And Marley walked it, sang it, chanted it, soared it. False modesty is for suckahs.

TIME WILL TELL is a powerful chronicle. I use it in my class every year on the 6th of February, which was Bob's birthday. My students examine his lyrics in the context of world political questions of our own period. Watch this film using a LCD projector with a stereo hookup, and if you don't come away with a better sense of the mystique of the Honorable Robert Nesta Marley, O.M., I'd be greatly surprised. This one's a winner.