The Review: Who Shot The Sheriff?

Who Shot The Sheriff? 7/10

Before I watched this documentary on Netflix called Who Shot The Sheriff?: The Bob Marley Story I knew very little about Bob Marley. Like the bare minimum. I knew some of his songs, where he was from, and that he had a lot of kids. That's about it. I had no idea of the impact he had on people. Not like the impact that famous people these days have where it sticks around in the form of clothing and music style and way of speaking but in terms of serious political movements. This is not the Kanye/Trump level bullshit I'm talking about either. This dude had real power and people tried to use him in ways that were not fair to one human being.

This covers events leading to an assassination attempt on Marley's life. Again. Had no idea that ever happened. The Jamaican prime minister and a leader of the Jamaica Labour Party wanted to use Marley's power. He was stuck in the middle of it and each party knew that the people would go the way Marley went. One night in December of 1976 a place where Marley and his people were staying at was shot up. No one was killed but they some were hit including Marley's wife and Marley himself. The people wanted him to perform still which he did not but did it anyway and got the fuck out of the country. There were so many people that could have wanted him dead ranging from gangs, former friends, current friends, his government, and other governments. The shit is wild.

It also turned out that the government was keeping track of Marley and his movements. After staying overseas Marley returned for a One Love Peace concert where he tried his damnedest to get people to get their shit together. It appeared to work with warring gang leaders hugging it out and even politicians suspected of trying to kill him brought on stage. You later find out that they used stage equipment to sneak guns into the country and put them in the streets. People are terrible. This was a good documentary but way too short. It is less than an hour and I had so many questions afterward. They speak with a lot of people but they switch to the next so frequently that their stories get lost in the shuffle. This could have easily been a three or four part special and I would have watched every minute of it. Oh. I also found out that his dad was White. Had. No. Idea.

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