BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE
****
Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green
Screenwriters: Terence Winter & Frank E. Flowers and Zach Baylin & Reinaldo Marcus Green, from a story by Terence Winter & Frank E. Flowers.
Principal cast:
Kingsley Ben-Adir
Lashana Lynch
James Norton
Tosin Cole
Anthony Welsh
Aston Barrett Jr.
Country: USA
Classification: M
Rating: ****
Runtime: 104 mins.
Australian release date: 14 February 2024.
One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain. - Bob Marley
Bob Marley was and is, to this day, one of reggae music’s greatest singer/songwriters and performers, whose fame lives on through his lyrics and his peaceful Rastafarian beliefs. His protest songs remain as pertinent and popular today as when they were written and, together with his love songs, are his legacy to the world. With the blessing of his family, particularly producers Rita, Ziggy and Cedella Marley, Bob Marley: One Love, is a moving portrait of a critical stage in the artist’s life. It centres on the period when he was inadvertently drawn into the political conflict between two opposing parties in Jamaica, despite publicly maintaining a neutral stance in local politics.
Set in London and Kingston, Jamaica (including on location in Marley’s actual home on Hope Road), the director, Reinaldo Marcus Green, takes his audience into the heart of Marley’s extended family and coterie of friends and musicians. Although Hope Road was a gated compound, the security was not solid enough to prevent a group of gunmen entering the premises on December 3, 1976, a couple of days before the Smile Jamaica concert. The non-partisan gig was set up to try and reduce the increasing violence between supporters of the rival parties but some saw it as Marley taking sides. When his home was raided, the singer, his wife Rita and manager Don Taylor, were shot. Fortunately, they all survived but the incident forced Marley to leave Jamaica and he moved to the UK for the next couple of years, focussing on the creation of Exodus (an album that was later voted album of the century by Time magazine). Then in 1978, he returned triumphantly for the famous One Love Peace Concert, a concert that finally achieved the aims that Smile Jamaica couldn’t.
British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir masterfully captures Marley’s charismatic persona and adopts the engaging smile and patois of the man himself. He is ably supported by Lashana Lynch as Rita, Marley’s long-suffering wife and a member of the I-Threes, the Wailers’ back-up singers. She was the singer’s closest confidante, taking care of his children (and not only hers - Marley’s frequent philandering is mentioned although not dwelt upon) and, despite taking a bullet in the head during the home invasion, never failed in her support for her partner. It must be said, however, that One Love does gloss over some of the rough edges of the Rasta’s relationships, given the involvement of his family in the film’s production. Island Records’ legendary founder, Chris Blackwell, is well played by James Norton (seen in the TV series Grantchester and Ivo van Hove’s A Little Life), who genuinely captures the fine line between business manager, fellow traveller and friend. The other characters in this film are all wonderfully authentic and, if you were around at the time, they’ll make you relive the era with a real sense of nostalgia.
Musically, the film superbly combines each aspect of the era being depicted, whether in the frequent flashbacks to Marley’s early life or his adult years in the late ‘70s, with the lyrics of the chosen songs defining what we’re seeing. The singer believed that reggae was the “conscience of the people” and a message of peace and freedom was conveyed in many of his songs, such as No More Trouble, Guiltiness and Redemption Song. For lovers of Marley’s music, Bob Marley: One Love is a wonderful experience. You leave the cinema buoyed by the knowledge that there’s “still a natural mystic blowin’ in the air”, fortified by the knowledge that Marley’s legacy lives on.
Screenwriters: Terence Winter & Frank E. Flowers and Zach Baylin & Reinaldo Marcus Green, from a story by Terence Winter & Frank E. Flowers.
Principal cast:
Kingsley Ben-Adir
Lashana Lynch
James Norton
Tosin Cole
Anthony Welsh
Aston Barrett Jr.
Country: USA
Classification: M
Rating: ****
Runtime: 104 mins.
Australian release date: 14 February 2024.
One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain. - Bob Marley
Bob Marley was and is, to this day, one of reggae music’s greatest singer/songwriters and performers, whose fame lives on through his lyrics and his peaceful Rastafarian beliefs. His protest songs remain as pertinent and popular today as when they were written and, together with his love songs, are his legacy to the world. With the blessing of his family, particularly producers Rita, Ziggy and Cedella Marley, Bob Marley: One Love, is a moving portrait of a critical stage in the artist’s life. It centres on the period when he was inadvertently drawn into the political conflict between two opposing parties in Jamaica, despite publicly maintaining a neutral stance in local politics.
Set in London and Kingston, Jamaica (including on location in Marley’s actual home on Hope Road), the director, Reinaldo Marcus Green, takes his audience into the heart of Marley’s extended family and coterie of friends and musicians. Although Hope Road was a gated compound, the security was not solid enough to prevent a group of gunmen entering the premises on December 3, 1976, a couple of days before the Smile Jamaica concert. The non-partisan gig was set up to try and reduce the increasing violence between supporters of the rival parties but some saw it as Marley taking sides. When his home was raided, the singer, his wife Rita and manager Don Taylor, were shot. Fortunately, they all survived but the incident forced Marley to leave Jamaica and he moved to the UK for the next couple of years, focussing on the creation of Exodus (an album that was later voted album of the century by Time magazine). Then in 1978, he returned triumphantly for the famous One Love Peace Concert, a concert that finally achieved the aims that Smile Jamaica couldn’t.
British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir masterfully captures Marley’s charismatic persona and adopts the engaging smile and patois of the man himself. He is ably supported by Lashana Lynch as Rita, Marley’s long-suffering wife and a member of the I-Threes, the Wailers’ back-up singers. She was the singer’s closest confidante, taking care of his children (and not only hers - Marley’s frequent philandering is mentioned although not dwelt upon) and, despite taking a bullet in the head during the home invasion, never failed in her support for her partner. It must be said, however, that One Love does gloss over some of the rough edges of the Rasta’s relationships, given the involvement of his family in the film’s production. Island Records’ legendary founder, Chris Blackwell, is well played by James Norton (seen in the TV series Grantchester and Ivo van Hove’s A Little Life), who genuinely captures the fine line between business manager, fellow traveller and friend. The other characters in this film are all wonderfully authentic and, if you were around at the time, they’ll make you relive the era with a real sense of nostalgia.
Musically, the film superbly combines each aspect of the era being depicted, whether in the frequent flashbacks to Marley’s early life or his adult years in the late ‘70s, with the lyrics of the chosen songs defining what we’re seeing. The singer believed that reggae was the “conscience of the people” and a message of peace and freedom was conveyed in many of his songs, such as No More Trouble, Guiltiness and Redemption Song. For lovers of Marley’s music, Bob Marley: One Love is a wonderful experience. You leave the cinema buoyed by the knowledge that there’s “still a natural mystic blowin’ in the air”, fortified by the knowledge that Marley’s legacy lives on.
