Marley

Door of No Return

sugar cane cutters

 

Bob and Rita

Bob and Rita

I-Threes

Bunny Wailer

Cindy Breakspeare

Bob and Cindy

Cindy Breakspeare

Rita Marley

Ziggy Marley

Cedella Marley

Allan “Skill” Cole

Director Kevin Macdonald

MARLEY             B+                                                                                                                Great Britain  USA  (145 mi)  2012  d: Kevin Macdonald

I think what’s great about the film is though there have been a lot of things done on Bob, I think this one will give people a more emotional connection to Bob’s life as a man – not just as a reggae legend or a mythical figure, but his life as a man.

—Ziggy Marley

Maker of superb documentaries that include Academy Award winner ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER (1999), the extraordinary TOUCHING THE VOID (2003), the equally compelling Whitney (2018), and also the Idi Amin historical drama LAST KING OF SCOTLAND (2006), this documentary was made with the full co-operation of the Marley family, told in chronological order, filling in the void of his relatively unknown early life, where the director was surprised to discover there’s not a single piece of footage from the first ten years of his performing career from 1962 to 1972, and only a handful of photographs, despite having five of the top 10 singles on the Jamaican charts early in his career with the Wailers, as no one really took them seriously.  Nonetheless, film and music buffs looking for an immersive portrait of all things associated with Bob Marley will be satiated by this sprawling documentary offering an expansive, richly layered collage of music, vintage archives, partly unpublished material, including rare recordings of Marley songs and live performances, and numerous interviews old and new, feeling like a definitive portrait of the reggae legend.  One of the driving forces behind this film is to uncover the mystery surrounding the enduring appeal of Bob Marley, a rare Third World superstar who remains as popular as ever some forty years after his death, where royalties alone account for $25 to $30 million dollars per year for his family, where there are currently more than 12 million streams monthly on Spotify alone (Bob Marley Would Be Highest Earning Music Legend On ...), with over 6 million followers on his Instagram account, and more than 33 million fans on Facebook and Twitter, so he’s a greater, weightier presence today than he ever was when alive, an enigma that is never fully explained.  While the religious and political impact of his life have too often been overlooked, there’s a surprisingly small amount of concert footage, and few if any songs play in their entirety.  Executive Producers on the film include Marley’s son Ziggy and Island Records founder and record producer Chris Blackwell, both of whom appear in the film, though the majority of the input comes from step-brother Bunny Wailer (aka Neville Livingston), describing Marley’s early childhood, as both were raised in the green hills of Nine Mile in Saint Ann Parish with no electricity, living under the same roof at one point in Kingston, Neville Garrick, the artistic director, graphic designer, and friend of Bob Marley who created the sleeve artwork for many of his albums, including Exodus, and also Cindy Breakspeare, Marley’s primary girlfriend since the mid 70’s when she was crowned Miss World 1976, who was all but omitted in Reinaldo Marcus Green’s recent release Bob Marley: One Love (2024).  These figures are onscreen more than the others, offering their own personal insight, expounding on what they know, suggesting they may have known him best.  Rita Marley, Bob’s Cuban-born wife, and Judy Mowatt, two of the I-Threes, the background vocalists for Marley onstage, and daughter Cedella Marley are also prominent figures, though Rita refuses to dwell on any of her husband’s personal transgressions, preferring to honor his eternal optimism, and instead inhabits the earth mother role of guardian angel holding everyone together, providing the necessary stability through fractured times.    

While this is the most comprehensive presentation of Bob Marley’s life that we have ever seen onscreen, taking us on a tour from Jamaica to America to London and on to Japan, Gabon, Zimbabwe, and Germany, what this film excels at is providing a thorough examination of Marley’s childhood and formative years, even finding his first music teacher, discovering he was bullied for being mixed race, as he had an older white father, Norval Marley, who was a British colonial officer who never recognized him as his son.  That family refusal obviously pained him as a kid, angrily writing a song about it, where the lyric “The stone that the builders refused will always be the head cornerstone” is adapted from The Book of Psalms, 118:22, as Macdonald can be seen playing it for the “white” Marley family, Bob Marley - Corner Stone - YouTube (2:25), who are themselves a bit flummoxed about the rising celebrity of a black cousin they never knew.  Dropping out of school to become a musician, spending all of his time in pursuit of that goal, Marley moved to the Trenchtown neighborhood of Kingston, where some of the introductory music he recorded in the early 60’s is simply not well known, including his first recorded song, released on the eve of independence, Bob Marley - Judge Not [1962] - YouTube (2:27) which made him realize going solo was much more difficult, instead forming a group with Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh called the Teenagers, which evolved into the Wailing Rudeboys, the Wailing Wailers and finally just the Wailers, a throwback to the doo-wop American groups, where the intricate harmony is sophisticated, emulating the sound of the Drifters, the Platters, the Impressionists, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, or Dion & the Belmonts singing NEW * A Teenager In Love - Dion & The Belmonts {Stereo} YouTube (2:39).  They were encouraged by Joe Higgs, a popular artist and influential figure in Jamaica for four decades who produced a countless amount of Jamaican artists over the years, a man who was instrumental in the foundation of modern Jamaican music, also known as the Father or Grandfather of reggae who encouraged young talent, working with Jimmy Cliff, acting as his bandleader, even writing songs for him, while also performing for the Wailers during their American tour when Bunny Wailer dropped out.  Island record producer Chris Blackwell wanted the Wailers to tour freak clubs in the United States for no money, only exposure, with Wailer leaving the band for spiritual reasons, claiming it was against his Rastafari principles.  It’s perhaps telling that Marley chose to follow the traditional music business pathways to fame and stardom, hard touring, selling his songs to other performers, letting the record company have their way even while his original Wailer cohorts, Peter Tosh (who seems to want nothing to do with this film, derogatorily describing Blackwell as Chris Whitewell) and Bunny Wailer, rejected this “sell-out” trajectory of exploitive commercialism, with Chris Blackwell acknowledging Marley’s early recordings were “pasteurized” for easier consumption.  Staying true to their roots, according to Higgs, it was out of the poverty and violence in Kingston’s shantytowns such as Trenchtown and Johnstown that reggae music was born.

Music is a matter of struggle.  It’s not good that it’s known you’re from Trenchtown.  Reggae is a confrontation of sound.  Reggae has to have that basic vibrant sound that is to be heard in the ghetto.  It’s like playing the drum and bass very loud.  Those are the basic sounds.  A classical reggae should be accepted in any part of the world.  Freedom, that’s what it's asking for, acceptance, that’s what it needs, and understanding, that’s what reggae’s saying.  You have a certain love come from hard struggle, long suffering.  Through pain you guard yourself with that hope of freedom, not to give up.   

Opening with ‘A Tuff Gong Production,’ the name of Marley’s record label, the film actually begins in Africa on Gorée Island off the coast of Senegal, the last moment on African soil during the Atlantic slave trade, passing through the “Door of No Return” where an estimated 10 to 20 million African slaves were shipped across the ocean on slave ships, the subject of Pierre-Yves Borgeaud’s Youssou N’Dour: Return to Gorée (Retour à Gorée) (2007) and this posted essay by Language Professor Dalla Malé Fofana, Senegal, the African Slave Trade, and the Door of No Return.  The slave trade in Jamaica was abolished in 1807 with the Slave Trade Act of 1807, but by then almost 2 million slaves were traded to Jamaica to run the sugar plantations, with tens of thousands dying on slave ships in the brutal middle passage between West Africa and the Caribbean.  After almost 250 years of rebellion and resistance, slavery itself was finally abolished in 1834 after the passage of The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.  This aspect of Jamaican history is interlinked with the history of reggae, where the roots of oppression are embedded in the music, with the director repeatedly referring to this “origin” of Bob Marley’s identity, as his biography cannot be separated from the colonial history of his homeland.  Marley is an artist aware of divine grace in his life, bringing a prophetic musical message of rebellion and redemption, who relentlessly synthesized the contradictions of perceived wisdom from his life experiences into potent lyrics that combine the utopian vision of Rastafari with recurrent themes of rejection and abandonment.  With songs like Bob Marley & The Wailers ‎- 400 Years - YouTube (2:33) and Concrete Jungle (Live at The Old Grey Whistle, 1973) - YouTube (4:11), little is left in doubt about the history that spawned such angry indignation in the provocative lyrics, Slave Driver (1973) - Bob Marley & The Wailers – YouTube (2:54).

Every time I hear the crack of
a whip
my blood runs cold
I remember on the slave ship
how they brutalize our very
souls
Today they say that we are free
only to be chained here
in poverty….

Macdonald, the Scottish-born director who is also the grandson of legendary Hungarian-British director Emeric Pressburger, tells the story of Marley’s life using different people he had met and worked with along the way, including interviews with Marley himself, much of it subtitled to help decipher the thick Jamaican patois, though the film never really captures the essence of his personality or his mischievous sense of humor, instead there’s a constant stream of music playing throughout, exposing the journey from his young life with his family, how his parents met, to his teenage origins in the music industry, his romance with Rita Marley, who described him as extremely shy, to his Rastafarian connections with spiritual advisor Mortimer Planno and the influence of Haile Salassie, who was mobbed by an adoring crowd on a 1966 visit to the island, much like Marley was after his death in 1981 when his body was returned to Jamaica.  No longer seeing himself as half-white and half-black, suffering the rejection of the people around him who viewed him as an outcast, he was simply embraced and accepted into the Rastafarian community, until he eventually became a major star, told with a sense of calm and restraint, where the man and his music are the message, with no political overkill.  But his progression included Jamaican hits like THE WAILERS - Bend Down Low [1966] - YouTube (2:32) which were extremely popular on the island, played constantly in dance halls, but never on radio stations that routinely rejected Rasta music.  The back story is told by his tour manager, Jamaican soccer legend Allan “Skill” Cole (both sharing a common love for football), where the group was forced to bring physically imposing gangsters with them carrying baseball bats into the radio studio, literally intimidating them to play his music, which initially led them to renowned record producer Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, with Bunny Wailer breaking out into song to describe the elation, Marley #1 Movie CLIP - Bob Marley (2012) HD - YouTube (2:28).  Eventually they found an innovative new producer in Lee “Scratch” Perry, something of an eccentric who used to work for Coxsone before starting up an independent business, but his energy and excitement in a music studio was infectious, eagerly dancing to what he heard, jumping on the tables, flailing his arms around in approval, where his early recordings of the Wailers had a profound influence on Marley’s career, as he was not afraid of experimentation, adding a spiritual element to his music, with the drum and the bass, viewed as the heartbeat and backbone, coming from two brothers, Carlton and Aston “Family Man” Barrett, providing the rhythmic foundation with a mix of funk, rhythm & blues, and soul, expressed in a jazzy way, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh & Bunny Wailer - Stir It Up (Live) 1973, YouTube (3:53).

One of the most profoundly affecting moments in the film comes from Constance Marley, a black half-sister accidentally discovered by Rita Marley, who also had a non-existent relationship with their same father, yet her reaction to hearing the same song played for the “white Marleys,” as she calls them, is much more impactful and emotional, completely identifying with how he must have felt being rejected by his father, placing a dramatic emphasis on how Bob Marley has finally assumed his rightful place in the family that excluded him, becoming the most significant Marley, replacing those others who have retreated into the background.  According to Judy Mowatt, she believes that rejection transformed him into the man he became, which is why he is so relatable and so easily identifiable to the rest of the world, as many people are rejected and hurting in similar ways, where his message of change and transformation is what defines his musical legacy.  With the camera gliding just above the Blue Mountains of eastern Jamaica, we hear the sounds of such an earthy and gospel-style rendition of perhaps his most famous ballad, a love-lullaby reminiscing about life in the “government yards” (housing projects) of Kingston, which just sends chills right through you to hear it, Bob Marley No Woman No Cry featuring Peter Tosh on piano (Marley Movie 2012) YouTube (1:44).   

No woman, no cry
No woman, no cry

‘Cause I remember when we used to sit
In the government yard in Trenchtown
Observing the hypocrites
Mingle with the good people we meet
Good friends we have, oh, good friends we’ve lost
Along the way,
In this great future, you can’t forget your past
So dry your tears, I say

Everything’s gonna be alright
Everything’s gonna be alright…

Marley’s early success allowed him to buy his rehearsal studio and giant complex known as the Island House from Chris Blackwell, renamed the Tuff Gong Studios, current residence of The Bob Marley Museum | Tour Bob Marleys Life of Music in ..., and while Rastas weren’t allowed to move uptown in the prestigious wealthy district, there were no dreadlocks there up until then, as this is the same neighborhood as the governor and prime minister who lived just a few doors down, with Marley proclaiming “I bring the ghetto uptown,” Marley - 'Clip 4' - YouTube (1:56).  The film adequately covers the same deeply divided period plunging headfirst into civil war during the mid-70’s accentuated in Bob Marley: One Love (2024), including the assassination attempt, his exile in England, Marley Movie CLIP #2 (2012) Bob Marley Movie HD - YouTube (2:38), and the bookend peace concerts that attempted to heal the political divisions, though it adds the perspective of Diane Jobson, his female lawyer, who wryly comments, “What more do Jamaicans love than a man who’s just survived a gunfight?,” yet Marley’s dealings with Kingston gangs, Rastafarians, prime minister candidates, and African causes reveal a musician transcending the studio and stage, MARLEY Exclusive Clip - YouTube (2:18).  He was always perplexed that American blacks never fully embraced his music, as his concerts were mostly filled by white audiences, as that’s how he was marketed early on by Chris Blackwell (the cause of the breakup of the original Wailers), though by the end of his life his music gained an enduring power and global reach.  His death from cancer is given even greater scrutiny here, finding himself with few options, cutting his American tour short due to his failing health, yet somehow he was able to power through each concert, offering the full display of his showmanship despite flagging morale all around him.  Chemotherapy treatment caused him to lose his hair, but the cancer progressed throughout his body, given just weeks to live, so he stopped all medical treatment and instead sought holistic treatment from Dr. Josef Issels in the frigid wintry conditions of the snow-capped Bavarian forests of Rottach-Egern, Germany, where they even found Waltraud Ullrich, a nurse that treated him at the facility, who remembered his kindness and endless patience.   Perhaps the most haunting memory comes along a winding road as we hear his voice echoing through an empty forest covered in layers of snow, sounding like Bob Dylan accompanying himself on acoustic guitar in the 60’s, with Marley singing a song of freedom in his Redemption Song, Bob Marley - Redemption Song (Acoustic Version) YouTube (3:10), expressing the need for emancipation, yet it thoroughly embodies the spirit of the Rastas.

Old pirates, yes, they rob I
Sold I to the merchant ships
Minutes after they took I
from the bottomless pit
But my hand was made strong
by the hand of the Almighty.                                                                                        We forward in this generation                                                                                     Triumphantly.

Won’t you help to sing                                                                                               These songs of freedom?                                                                                          ‘Cause all I ever have                                                                                               Redemption songs                                                                                           Redemption songs.

Whitney

Dee Dee Warwick (left) and a young Whitney Houston

 

Whitney in the studio singing with her mother, Cissy Houston

 

Whitney with her parents and two brothers

 

Whitney with her mother and father

 

Whitney with Robyn Crawford and her two brothers

 

Whitney with her mother and Dionne Warwick (right)

 

Daddy's girl

 

Bobby Brown

 

Mary Jones, Whitney's aunt and personal assistant

 

Clive Owens, president of Arista Records

 

singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl

 

meeting Nelson Mandela in South Africa

 

Whitney's home in New Jersey

 

WHITNEY                 B+                  

USA  Great Britain  (120 mi)  2018  d:  Kevin Macdonald           Official site

A curious documentary that probes under the surface, premiering at Cannes, very much in the same vein as Asif Kapadia’s Amy (2015), the film was commissioned and basically authorized by Whitney Houston’s estate, whose executor is the late singer’s sister-in-law, Pat Houston, one of the producers on the film, where Scottish director Kevin Macdonald obtained family access to photos and archival material, also interviews with family members and close associates, and while a few were forthcoming, some to a surprising degree, but most others refused to offer anything but the standard family line, something they’ve been doing their entire lives, never deviating from the script, making this a more difficult challenge than it might seem.  The daughter to gospel and soul singer Cissy Houston, who formed the Drinkard Singers, the Gospelaires, and later the Sweet Inspirations, whose career as a back-up singer to Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley is legendary, where Dionne and Dee Dee Warwick are Cissy’s nieces and opera diva Leontyne Price is her cousin, but she also worked as the musical director of their Newark, New Jersey church, where Whitney sang as a child, working closely with her to prepare her for a singing career.  Among the first notes we hear come from a music video, but with all the instrumentation stripped away, allowing viewers to hear the pure and unadulterated sounds of Whitney’s singing voice.  Today you can hear the booming sounds of Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody - YouTube (5:14) echoing throughout giant sports arenas, like baseball, football, basketball, or even hockey games, as the upbeat vibe so perfectly fits the need to entertain fans between plays, amping up the volume, fueling energy into the room, where it’s a mad rush of pure adrenaline.  While music is truly international, mixing music with sports is a particularly American touch, as the joyous music typifies what’s best about America, yet it’s also the music to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s first dance at their recent wedding, a song Markle refers to as her “happy song,” so the joy is spread around the world.  What’s perhaps notable early on is that Whitney did not respond well to her mother leaving and going on the road all the time, leaving her children in the hands of other family members for long periods of time, where Whitney, the only girl in a family of brothers, was picked on for having lighter skin, a problem unique to black communities plagued by the race issue, something that would follow Whitney throughout her career.  After the Newark riots in 1967 and in something of a protective measure, the family moved to a larger house in East Orange and Whitney was sent to an all-girls Catholic high school, where she met her best friend Robyn Crawford, described as the “sister she never had,” who would remain a lifelong confidante for the rest of her life.       

 

Whitney thrived singing in the church, and loved singing with freedom and abandon, but her mother, basically the architect of her musical style and career, was a tough taskmaster, making her repeat things over and over again until she got it right, with Whitney making a surprise appearance at the Sweetwater Club, a Manhattan New York night club replacing her mother, who feigned an illness, and was an instant success, immediately offered record deals, but Cissy refused as she was still in high school, but she did sing back-up jobs with her mother for Chaka Khan at age 15 and by seventeen was also doing modeling work, becoming the first black woman on the cover of Seventeen magazine.  But she was solely interested in a singing career, resulting in a bidding war for her services, eventually choosing Clive Owens from Arista Records to represent her, and within a year she made her television debut, singing a song from The Wiz, Whitney Houston's "Home" Live On The Merv Griffin Show 1985 ... (5:03) to a rousing  success, which led to her portrayal of a fresh new face with a bubbly image, almost like the innocence of a Disney character where the beautiful Siren-like princess finds fame and fortune by singing for others, thoroughly enchanting them, mysteriously making them melt in her hands.  Unlike anyone else in the industry, she had a voice that was set apart from the others, with a three octave range, effortlessly wrapping herself around the words and content of each song, soulfully identifying so completely with what she was singing, breathing new life into every expression, where seeing her live was “an experience.”  Few have had the range and distinctive sound that she could produce, embracing and identifying with audiences, raising the artistic quality by so easily hitting and holding every note.  In a word she was brilliant, though her commercial appeal was heavily packaged, featuring that natural smile, her beauty, and an ability to have a good time on stage.  Her seven consecutive number one hits is still an unmatched feat in the music industry, and her cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” WHITNEY HOUSTON - I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU ( GRAMMY´S ... YouTube (5:30) from THE BODYGUARD (1992) soundtrack is still the all-time best-selling single by a female artist.  Hilariously, Saddam Hussein used an Arabic version as his campaign song when running for his final presidential term, at the time heard playing on the radio so relentlessly that one man living in tenement housing in the British Isles somewhere complained that his neighbor played it over and over again endlessly, driving him batty, complaining to the police, where the person in question eventually served 7 days in jail.  This serves as an example of the Whitney fever that existed around the world, where she was simply uber successful, bringing boatloads of money into the family, many going on tour with her, including Gary Garland (former DePaul basketball player) as a back-up singer, where two other brothers acted as bodyguards and road managers, but were also very open about fulfilling their roles of procuring drugs in every city they visited, something they had been doing since their teenage years.

Certainly one of the most eye-opening sequences described the friendly relationship between Whitney and Robyn Crawford, who was an acknowledged lesbian and considered trouble by the family, who quickly denounced her as a hanger-on and a nobody, but that is obviously a family cover up, as she was her most trusted friend after high school, perhaps the only one who always put Whitney’s needs above all else, working as her assistant, then her executive assistant, and finally her creative director, traveling around the world with her in charge of shows.  While it was alleged they were lovers, what’s more important is their friendship, as they were obviously a collaborating team that worked well together personally and professionally, also providing space for Whitney when she needed it, like a place to disappear to and just be herself, not having to be that professional image of herself, which is nearly impossible to live up to.  Ask Michael Jackson or Prince, or before them Jim Morrison or Janis Joplin, or countless others in the music biz that lost their lives tragically early.  When you have all the money in the world and literally no obstacles, no one telling you no, temptations are lurking everywhere.  Crawford provided stability when Whitney’s parents were breaking up, as Cissy was allegedly having an affair with the pastor, which is more than her father John Houston could stand, having his own family’s phone tapped to track his wife’s movements, though he was just as guilty of his own infidelity.  He was an important Newark city official in an era post 1967 riots with whites leaving the city in droves, ushering in black officials for the first time to run the city, but it was a corrupt administration, people were on the take, including John who became a power broker authorizing the construction of new buildings.  According to his children’s recollections, like The Godfather, you were expected to kiss his gold ring.  Now deceased, his life is a bit clouded in ambiguity, though he maintained contact with his daughter’s career, becoming her manager at one point, then sued her for $100 million dollars when she signed with someone else, still wanting a piece of her profits.  This move on his part effectively ended their relationship, never speaking to him afterwards.  One other revelation was how Whitney was initially perceived by the black community, perceived as too gay, or too white, with the Reverend Al Sharpton leading a boycott against her for appealing to a white audience, calling her “White-ney.”  She was actually booed at the Soul Train Awards, which hurt her deeply, as it’s impossible to conceive Whitney Houston as anything but black in the way she sings, among the first black artists to be featured on what was otherwise an all-white MTV, Whitney Houston-How Will I Know (Live on MTV 1986) - YouTube (3:55) or Whitney Houston - All The Man That I Need (Live) - YouTube (6:34) in 1991 from her Welcome Home Heroes concert to honor the troops, obviously taking us back to church with that proud black tradition.  Having to defend herself on TV chat shows didn’t seem to have any impact.  What caught her eye, however, was the instant appeal of another Soul Train performer, Bobby Brown, which seemed to solve all her problems, as he was black enough, and straight.  After a three-year courtship they were married.          

While Whitney seems genuinely happy at first, over time the influence of her husband becomes brooding and more imposing, especially when her earnings simply go through the roof, all but leaving him in the dust as a performing artist, which seems to deflate his image of a man, so he misbehaves as a way of getting attention.  The film disproves any thought that he may have introduced Whitney to drugs, as that came from her own brothers at age 16, who call Bobby Brown a lightweight in terms of drug use.  So quite a few things are going on behind the scenes, as her husband and father genuinely detest the influence of Robyn Crawford, yet it turns out their own influence is much more damaging, eventually pushing Crawford out altogether, who felt Brown’s philandering and self-destructive influence on Whitney’s career would have a devastating influence, as they simply retreated for days and weeks on end behind hotel room doors, each fighting their own demons, struggling with addiction issues, which the family continued to deny, never acknowledging any real or profound impact, despite Whitney’s public attempts to seek treatment, almost always leaving prematurely, with her husband apparently threatened by her sobriety, eventually falling back into the same habits.  Drugs destroyed both her voice and her career, so it’s telling that two of the closest to Whitney, her mother and her husband, wouldn’t even discuss drug use before the camera, with Brown astonishingly claiming it had nothing to do with her death.  As people don’t normally drown in hotel bathtubs, viewers will find him both delusional and detestable.  Much more forthcoming is Mary Jones, Whitney’s aunt and personal assistant, the one who discovered Whitney dead in a Beverly Hilton bathtub at age 48, who heartbreakingly witnessed a 14-year marriage fall apart and end in divorce, with both fatally inadequate to raise a child, as their daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, died at age 22 in a death identical to her mother.  It was Mary Jones, along with one of Whitney’s brothers, Gary Garland, who insinuated sexual abuse, as Garland was himself abused as a child around age 8 or 9, naming his cousin Dee Dee Warwick (now deceased, but who would have been in her late 20’s), suggesting she abused Whitney as well, particularly when her mother was away for long periods of time and the children were left in her care.  What is intimated here is that Whitney wasn’t able to come to terms with her sexuality, and be open about it, because of the horror of that abuse.  This discovery comes late in the film and was discovered near the end of the director’s shoot, where the family finds it a detestable admission in the film, like what good does that do now?  Certainly one of the more uncomfortable aspects of the film is the unspoken realization of how much the family contributed to Whitney’s demise, as they repeatedly covered up for her, always singing her praises, but leaving out the darker side with the long-lasting scars.  Perhaps most telling is Macdonald’s interview with a tearful Lynn Volkman, Whitney’s publicist, who had been with her since the start of her career.  “I’ve spent 25 years lying about Whitney, so it’s very difficult for me to get into the other gear of actually trying to say what is truthful…I now feel so guilty.  I thought I was helping her.  I was doing what was required of me.  But actually, I was enabling the addiction, and enabling all this bad behavior by doing that.  Why did I do that?”  Of course, that’s a question none of us can answer, offering instead a devastatingly poignant and emotionally involving film that explores the highs and lows in equal measure, filled with touching moments throughout, offering a special glimpse of this mega-star performer who lost a personal struggle with her own demons.