In its theatrical release, Bob Marley: One Love opens with a prologue from Ziggy Marley, the chief child of Bob and the driving force behind cementing Marley’s ongoing legacy in the 21st century. It’s gone from the streaming version, but…
On one hand, it’s a signal of authenticity, that this story of a Black man is held in Black hands. On the other hand, it also invites the question of just how real this story is going to get.
And that is the tension that builds and releases when viewing the film, because Marley has been mythologized for four decades now as Reggae Jesus.
One Love can’t get away from that, because that’s what its viewing audience came for and the Marley family is involved in the production, therefore the film’s task is to add human dimension to these mythic figures while adding mythology to the human events.
In short, Bob Marley: One Love works very well as an entertaining and hearty movie, as a calling card for Jamaica, and to remind and educate the world about the soul-stirring music Marley made and which still resonates. The film smartly focuses on the years that “made” Bob Marley: the 1976-79 period during which Marley fled to London after he survived an attempt on his life amid Jamaica’s violent political strife, when he recorded his most influential music and fully ascended to this legendary being.
The love poured into One Love is clear on screen, from the stars’ acting, photography to show off the beauty of Jamaica, to a script and direction that attempts to walk the line between proper homage to Marley (and, in turn, Rastafarianism) and the myth-making Stations of the Musical Biopic.
Kingsley Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch fill out their roles with varying shades of humanity as Bob and Rita Marley, respectively.
That’s especially tough for Ben-Adir, from the first frame, in how he embodies the role. And I mean body. Ben-Adir’s muscled physique and voluminous wig of locs add a few inches of height, making him into the mythic Bob Marley. Ben-Adir, at 5-feet-7, is roughly the same height as Marley, but it’s jarring when the film shows footage of the actual Marley. Andre Royo in his heyday as Bubbles from The Wire would have been perfect for the part.
However, we’re watching One Love to see Bob Marley the legend, and Ben-Adir (Malcolm X in One Night in Miami) delivers the rapturous expressions of musical and spiritual ecstasy, the fatherly bearing, the radical piety. But he never looks better as Bob in the movie than when he’s soccer with his friends.
Rita Marley as a character too easily at times is slotted into the wifely role in biopics as the male lead’s reason for living and fretting conscience. However, Lashana Lynch imbues the role with her fierce-yet-studied technicality and emotional heft. Lynch (The Woman King) is exactly the actress you want for a role such as this, where the script uses flashbacks to show how Rita introduced Bob into Rastafarianism and is the fiery, organizational leader in the Marley machine, literally and figuratively backing him up.
Director Reinaldo Marcus Green previously helmed King Richard, which starred Will Smith and attempted to document the legend of Venus and Serena’s father and his harebrained-yet-successful plan to turn his daughters in the greatest tennis players of all time. From that perspective, Green is about as correct a pick for One Love as you could think. His work shows an understanding of the importance of proper respect and mythmaking of Black figures in light of a world that often denigrates them. I’d be interested to see if he can bring similar heat to female figures at the center of a story.
Bob Marley: One Love does suffer from that push for hagiography and sweep-under-the-rug behavior. Consider, for example, exactly how many Marley children are depicted in the film, or one reference to Marley’s extramarital relationships. Or the film strains with the Reggae Jesus narrative when we’re talking about the concrete things of world tours, record deals and studio sessions.
Luckily, the film does enjoy depicting some of that studio time and creativity. It even finds time to nod to Marley’s real-life acquaintance with the Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten and draw parallels of social unrest between Kingston and London.
Extras include several featurettes and extended/deleted scenes.
Even though One Love cannot be taken as the full truth of Marley’s life, it captures an emotional truth of Marley’s life and times and personal story that allow for the film to cast its own visions within this visionary man. Did I need a story with flashbacks to Marley’s childhood that involve a vision of his absent white father, a burning village, and a lion? The real question is, do you want a movie without them?
You must be logged in to post a comment Login