When heavyweight boxing legend Muhammad Ali met Will Smith, who was to portray him in the biopic “Ali,” Ali said, “You’re almost pretty enough to play me.”
Had reggae music king Bob Marley met Kingsley Ben-Adir, who plays him in the biopic “Bob Marley: One Love,” Bob would probably have said, “Ya much too pritt-eh to play me, mon.”
Bob Marley (Kingsley Ben-Adir) onstage in "Bob Marley: One Love." Paramount Pictures
And it’s true—Mr. Ben-Adir is too pretty, in the classic tradition of Hollywood putting a prettier face on the real-life subject. But it matters not—one quickly suspends disbelief. Mr. Ben-Adir captures a huge amount of Marley, except not quite the raw, frenetic, whirling dervish onstage energy and dance. The flashbacks of actual Marley onstage-footage remind us of what an elemental force he was— almost not of this world.
Reggae’s not rock, but Marley was a bona fide rock star, and while his Rastafarianism embraces marijuana with a spiritual intention—similar to usages of ayahuasca and iboga plants in shamanism—once cannot really claim, in the end, that his wasn’t a classic sex-drugs-rock‘n’roll lifestyle. But Marley’s intentions to help heal the world with his music were ultimately noble; he cared terribly deeply about the world. This film chooses to accentuate that aspect.
History
The meat of the film deals with the two-year period of 1976 to 1978 that was the turning point in Marley’s life and career. It opens with the nonstop, non-tobacco-smoking musician at a press conference, talking about his upcoming “Smile Jamaica Concert.”
Bob was a political force with heft akin to his folk music forbears Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, but far more potent in a big-fish-in-a-small-pond way, as his massive charisma was confined only to the island nation of Jamaica and could therefore strongly affect political outcomes, as opposed to taking on the entire American civil rights movement like Ms. Baez. His cultural influence though, later spread around the globe.
Bob intended his concert as: 1) a call for political unification for Jamaica, which was in danger of a civil war after years of post-colonial turmoil, political infighting, and gang warfare; and 2) a spiritual awakening for Jamaica, championing the Rastafarian tenets of peace, love, and unity, the universal reggae catch phrase of which is “one love.” But the concert, while basically apolitical in nature, nevertheless put a price on Marley’s head. His wife Rita (Lashana Lynch) presciently warns him about not taking the death threats seriously enough.
Naturally, two days prior to the Dec. 5 concert, assassins gunned Marley down in his Kingston home, along with his wife, Rita Marley (who was also one of his backup singers), and manager Don Taylor (Anthony Welsh). Everyone survived the attack, and dreadlocks proved to be worth their weight in gold: A bullet fired point-blank at Rita’s head hit one of her dreadlocks which was unassailable enough to prevent the bullet from entering her brain.
Rita Marley (Lashana Lynch) and Bob Marley (Kingsley Ben-Adir) share memories of their childhood, in "Bob Marley: One Love." Paramount Pictures
Post-concert, Rita, children in tow, headed to Delaware, to stay with Marley’s mother. Bob went to London and began work on the future iconic, groundbreaking “Exodus” album (1977), which shot Bob and the band to global stardom. Then, soccer-obsessed Bob kicked a soccer ball the wrong way, injured his toe, which then refused to heal, revealing that acral lentiginous melanoma had taken up residence in Marley’s body for quite some time, and eventually removed this musical trailblazer from the world at age 36.
Most of the film revolves around this time, which is really the period when Bob Marley began to transcend music, and started to morph into the slightly messianic proportions his legacy is seen as today.
The film explores the many contradictions that comprise Bob Marley: the inner little boy still confused and hurt by the rejection of his existence by his Caucasian father; Marley nevertheless (or therefore) preaches a message of “one love.” Marley is the political firebrand who avoided involvement—a tricky balancing act; and Marley the patriarch, protecting and caring for his extensive family, and who, at the same time, fathered many children by many mothers, regardless of the fact that faithful Rita—the great woman behind every great man—raised some of those children for him.
Fairly Hagiographic
All of the above qualities are presented in a pretty glowing fashion. Usually, the more “unauthorized” a Hollywood biopic is, the more truthful. “Bob Marley: One Love” might be the most “authorized” musical biopic in recent film history, what with Bob-offspring Ziggy Marley, Orly Marley, Rita Marley, and Cedella Marley on board as producers and consultants.
Bob Marley (Kingsley Ben-Adir), in "Bob Marley: One Love." Paramount Pictures
Also, after seeing Brad Pitt’s hilarious white Rastafarian roommate character, Floyd, in “True Romance” (you remember Floyd: “Don’t ... cond-de-descend me, man, I'll ... kill ya!”), I was not surprised to see Mr. Pitt here as a producer as well. With Mr. Pitt’s reggae fandom, and the Marley family’s obvious adulation of its paterfamilias, it’s hardly surprising that the film is hugely hagiographical. But it doesn’t really matter. It’s a fine introduction for those not familiar with Bob’s story, and might move some to have a look at the documentaries about him to fill in the blanks, not to mention explore his music.
Not that many need to do so: Blond-dreadlocked reggae-loving Caucasian Rastafari are now ubiquitous; interestingly, a plethora of which are to be found in both Germany and Israel. And in America, we’ve witnessed the curious rise of the “Trustafarian,” the internet definition of which is, “a wealthy young person who adopts an alternative lifestyle incorporating elements from non-Western cultures.”
“Bob Marley: One Love” is mostly a celebration of the music, and one can’t really go wrong with that, considering Bob’s monumental legacy. However, it’s a bit too facile and falls too easily into predictable “jukebox musical” tropes: Oh look! There he is in the car, reassuring his kids that the assassination attempt was only a scratch, and that’s how he came up with the lyric, “Don’t worry ‘bout a ting, every little ting, gonna be ah-right.”
What’s fun is that the Jamaican accent runs thick enough throughout to warrant subtitles, but the film rightly assumes that the entire world’s been listening to reggae since the mid-'70s, which gave rise to Jamaican Patois (along with Scottish and Indian accents) being featured in movies, and, just like everyone being “a little bit Irish” on Saint Patrick’s Day, by now, everyone’s a little bit Jamaican. One comes away from the film with a slight touch of pride, as if one were now fluent in a foreign language.
What I had really hoped to see was the first time Bob Marley and the Wailers played Harlem, New York City. Two factions of descendants of the 16th-century West African slave trade, onstage and in the audience, separated by two very different lands and cultures that had grown apart and become estranged. Initially reserved, slightly skeptical African-Americans weren’t sure what to expect from their island-grown, Blue Mountain-dwelling, crazy-dreadlocked, ganja-wafting hippie cousins. But when the music hit, and it viscerally dawned on American black folks what that all-powerful reggae beat could do—the joint (pun intended) absolutely exploded with frenzied joyousness. Witnessing a mock-up of that reunion would have been big fun.
(L–R) Bob Marley (Kingsley Ben-Adir) and his backup singers, The I-Threes: Judy Mowatt (Anna Share-Blake), Rita Marley (Lashana Lynch), and Marcia Griffiths (Naomi Cowan), in "Bob Marley: One Love." Paramount Pictures
Also interesting would have been Bob’s rejection of Prince’s request to jam together—Prince, being at the time in his performing-in-black-bikini-underwear,-fringed-top,-and-thigh-high-stockings phase. Bob, being traditionally masculine and macho in the Jamaican tradition, wasn’t having it; he wanted no part of working with Prince. Had Prince, arguably even more of a musical genius than Marley, put some pants on, that would have surely been an epic collaboration for the ages.
Undoubtedly, a bigger Bob movie will come down the pike at some point, and that’ll hopefully go further in depth and incorporate the abovementioned stories. For now, “Bob Marley: One Love,” via the two fine lead performances, succeeds in spreading Marley’s message of love. And having “One Love” open on Valentine’s Day is a marketing ploy one simply can’t argue with.
Promotional poster for "Bob Marley: One Love." Paramount Pictures
‘Bob Marley: One Love’
Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green
Starring: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch, Anthony Welsh, James Norton, Michael Gandolfini, Alexx A-Game
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hour, 44 minutes
Release Date: Feb. 14, 2024
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Would you like to see other kinds of arts and culture articles? Please email us your story ideas or feedback at [email protected]
Mark Jackson
Film Critic
Mark Jackson is the chief film critic for the Epoch Times. In addition to film, he enjoys martial arts, motorcycles, rock-climbing, qigong, and human rights activism. Jackson earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Williams College, followed by 20 years' experience as a New York professional actor. He narrated The Epoch Times audiobook "How the Specter of Communism is Ruling Our World," available on iTunes, Audible, and YouTube. Mark is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic.
