Marvin Gaye

Producer/director Martin Baker has done a phenomenal and sensitive job of putting the life of singer Marvin Gaye together for this package, Behind the Legend: Marvin Gaye. It is an enormous work which uncovers the man's genius while telling the story of that all-important 11-year period from 1973 to after the artist's death on April 1, 1984, on the eve of his 45th birthday. The DVD flows at a good pace, despite the density of the story and the enormous amount of information. The psychological profile that unfolds from the interviews with former wives, children, brother, Gaye's musicians and business associates is food for thought: Couldn't anyone have stopped this out-of-control train and put it back on the tracks? Clips of Marvin Gaye performing solo at the piano for "Come Get This," as well as the video for "Funky Space Reincarnation," along with live performance footage all combine for a wonderful overview of this phenomenon from Motown. Columbia record executive Larkin Arnold makes an insightful comment -- "you never really lose genius. Sometimes you can bury it under a lot of other stuff that may subjugate it to the point where it can't come out. But I think gifts from God are never completely lost." The Executive VP from Los Angeles was rewarded when "Sexual Healing" achieved unheard-of success on the R&B charts, the DVD claiming it stayed at number one for 26 weeks (Billboard has it at number one on the R&B charts for ten weeks, Top Three in November of 1982, though it probably spent a half-a-year in different positions on the R&B charts). There is great imagery in this film, from the opening segment of "What's Going On" with the bombs dropping in Vietnam, to the scenery of Hawaii, where Gaye got away from it all, to Belgium and the business of touring and making records. Gaye is also shown at a boxing gym with gloves on talking about his next fight -- "Going to be with my wife. Fifteen rounds. Elimination" -- but you can see in his face the absolute heartbreak his friends document in their interviews. Like Jim Morrison, Gaye was in danger of arrest if he came back to the states, all sorts of legal items detailed in the DVD. But his triumphant moment of winning two Grammy awards for "Sexual Healing" on February 23, 1983, at the 25th annual gathering for that event, as well as Anna Gaye's reflections that Marvin "thought it was late in coming" (it truly was), and the madness of the violent end to it all 14 months after the Grammy achievement is a remarkable story told with care, and no holds barred. There's the body being put into the ambulance, the open coffin, and the trial of the singer's murderer... his own father, which some might call exploitation, but which really comes off as graphic as the bombs dropping at the beginning of this Martin Baker film. It's a gripping story with an immortal soundtrack. The bonus songs are exquisite -- the stunning opening to "Let's Get It On," Marvin's command of the stage, and his voice always being on target make the point very well that this is a real tragedy. Had Marvin Gaye died at 27 like Janis Joplin, Morrison, and Hendrix, he would not have even gotten to "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," his first monster smash in 1968. That this story begins in 1973 is proof that though he was another brilliant life cut short, his output was such that the man actually had two or three careers. The value of his art and the waste and excess surrounding it is surreal, and is captured very well on this DVD. ~ Joe Viglione, All Music Guide