As a Jamaican music fan, I was skeptical of the new Bob Marley: One Love biopic, but I knew I’d want to see it either way. And although it features bad wigs and clunky exposition, there’s also a charismatic central performance from Kingsley Ben-Adir as Bob Marley, and the film’s structure avoids many of the origin story cliches we’ve come to expect from movies about musical artists.
If a singer-songwriter is famous enough to have a film of their life made, their looks, personality and even their story are probably already a part of pop culture consciousness, and it can be immensely challenging to tell a compelling unique story about a global superstar like Bob Marley. And it’s a pleasant surprise to find a gem like Bob Marley: One Love delivering a cinematic story worthy of its world-changing subject.
The movie opens with Marley as a child waiting with his mother at a bus stop. The scene cuts between images of Marley sleeping on the bus with his head on his mother’s shoulder and an intertitle prologue explaining that baby Bob was born in the countryside in St. Ann Parish before moving to the hard streets of Kingston’s Trench Town neighborhood where he grew up. The intro illuminates the combustible political atmosphere in Jamaica in its first decades of independence before the movie begins in earnest in the last chapters of Marley’s life, career and activism. I was caught off guard when I realized Bob Marley: One Love wasn’t going to focus on the more seemingly-predictable story of young Bob discovering music and meeting the Wailers, and becoming a dedicated Rastafarian. Instead this movie delivers gunfights and militarized checkpoints, concerts on the brink of riot, political corruption and spiritual searching. It’s a tumultuous film about a tumultuous time in Marley’s life in the days surrounding his 1976 Smile Jamaica concert. The show was billed as a peace event during a time when battling political factions threatened to sink Jamaica into civil war just 14 years after the country gained its independence from Britain in 1962. This period informed the songwriting and production of the album Exodus, the LP that made Marley an international star. Green fills-in the more-expected biographical bits with flashbacks. It’s not exactly a unique technique, but the flashbacks are condensed into single scenes and stylized with dreamy light. The overall effect feels poetic and fitting for a movie that’s at its best when it’s focused on creative people collaborating.
Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch — as Marley’s wife and bandmate, Rita Marley — both bring natural, grounded acted to the film, and the musical performances, and the scenes of Marley working on songs are thoroughly believable. Ben-Adir took guitar lessons and his singing in the film is a mix of his own voice Marley’s recorded vocals. Lots of films about musicians don’t get these kinds of scenes correct with a room full of actors pretending to play instruments, pretending to be well-known musicians. Bob Marley was only five feet, six inches tall. Ben Adir is 6’2 with a muscular build compared to the diminutive singer’s small frame. But there isn’t a moment in this movie when you don’t accept him as Marley. The scenes between Bob and Rita are well written, and the script is great at giving Rita credit for her contributions to Bob and their music, without losing focus on its subject.
The film played theaters back in February and the picture is now streaming on Amazon Prime. When Bob Marley: One Love opened back in February it’s $14 million first day receipts broke the record for a film opening in the middle of Valentines Day week. It also had the biggest opening day for any film ever in Jamaica.
Bob Marley: One Love is streaming on Prime
Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.