One of the biggest surprise hits at the international box office, Bob Marley: One Love The film generated widespread acclaim when it was released in February 2024. However, despite its commercial success, grossing nearly $180 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo ), most agree that the film is a standard biopic that deprives the artist’s remarkable subject of a fuller picture. Despite the radiant charm of star Kingsley Ben-Adir in the lead role, the film sanitizes Bob Marley’s life story to tell an inspiring tale of a positive role model overcoming poverty in Jamaica to achieve international stardom.
There’s a dull simplicity to the film that offends the three-dimensional complexity that Bob Marley was known for. Most tellingly, the lack of engaging, high-stakes drama makes the film feel more like a commercial Bob Marley music video than a legitimate biopic that gets to the heart of what made the man and musician tick. Now that the film is available on Prime Video, a deeper examination of where the film went wrong on the surface is in order.
What is Bob: Marley One Love about?
A routine musical biographical film directed by Marcus Reinaldo Green, Bob Marley: One Love The film avoids the pitfalls of telling a cradle-to-grave story, but it still feels flat and one-dimensional. The story revolves around five years in the life of the famous reggae star Bob Marley (Ben Adir), and takes place from 1976 to 1981.The musical begins in Jamaica, where Bob Marley and his wife Rita Marley (Lashana Lynch) are assassinated in a tense political environment. The two attempt to broker peace by performing at a Smile Jamaica peace rally, but Marley moves his family to Delaware and his band to London.
In London, Marley struggles to find inspiration for his new album, so he turns to Rita for ideas. Marley and his band record the hit album Exit In London, where the reggae and Rastafarian movements are expanding worldwide, the band begins touring Europe and Africa. The distance between Bob and Rita grows, as Bob's infamous betrayal is almost never addressed in the film. Aside from some cheesy musical numbers and faux-cheerful moments, the film quickly moves on to Marley's diagnosis of skin cancer caused by a neglected toenail infection..
The film's good-natured first half gives way to a bleak third act as Marley braves cancer and fights with his manager over money. The film ends unconvincingly with Marley reconciling with Rita and his band and forgiving the man who almost shot him to death in the first place. Marley declares he has “no intentions of revenge” before performing “One Love” in a simple Kumbaya moment that feels completely false.The film wants to celebrate Bob Marley's musical contributions and political activism, but it avoids the real conflict, lasting consequences, and personal mistakes that made this man and artist a whole.
What the biopic failed to address
For a biopic that covers only five years of the life of a great musician like Bob Marley, one love It seems simple, straightforward and sanitized. The term autobiography refers to a biography that glorifies its subject, which appropriately describes how one love Jobs. The film idolizes and deifies Marley rather than portraying the character honestly.and he is more interested in putting the musician on a pedestal rather than in a glass house to bear witness to all his faults and shortcomings.
as, Many of the darker areas of Marley's life were not addressed in the film.For example, Bob Marley’s 13 children by eight different women are never even briefly glimpsed in the film, which excuses his chronic infidelity because Rita simply knew about it. And at a brisk 1 hour and 47 minutes, the film doesn’t give enough time to explore the depths of Marley’s personal and professional life, and it rushes through paint-by-numbers rhythms to satisfy the basic biopic formula.
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The routine stage scenes, the tedious editorial lines, and the glaring lack of drama all make for a largely disappointing experience. Marley fans would do well to replay an old album to relive the vibration they felt in his presence. The lack of raising children in Trench Town, learning to play guitar and write songs, his final days of illness, and living with his sons and daughters are all omitted, all in order to simplify a somewhat conventional biography that is more afraid of tarnishing Marley’s name than telling the full and honest truth.
bob marley derives best
If there's one musical artist who deserves a better, more accurate, more exciting biopic, it's hard to beat Bob Marley. Despite his mistakes and transgressions, the man almost single-handedly succeeded in popularizing reggae music and opening doors for many people to flourish in his footsteps.Political activism and attempts to broker peace in Zimbabwe as seen in the film should not be taken lightly.
While Marley’s musical legacy speaks for itself, the awareness he brought to Jamaica as a musical hotbed cannot be overstated. However, these virtues can and should be expressed while also showing a darker, more complex side to Marley’s personality, something the film avoids in its transformation into a commercial celebration. As Owen Gleiberman wrote in his Variety review:
“The new biographical style was intended to reveal totemic characters in a more complex way. 'One Love' flirts with complexity but slips into the banality of hero worship.”
Similarly, Vikram Murthy of IndieWire adds:
“One Love plods along through a sluggish, and then-this-happened, structure that neglects to illuminate or entertain. It’s watchable only thanks to the performances of Kingsley Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch, who do a great job of bringing Bob and Rita Marley, respectively, to real life that’s absent from the rest of the film.”
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Even those who have given the high-grossing film mild praise say the sum of its parts doesn't match the size of the film. Rolling Stone's David Fair says:
Director Reinaldo Marcus Green (
King Richard
) does its job by delivering eureka moments, some great song sequences, and some character drama. The result is a thoroughly functional look at a legend, one that will surely make you want to put Exodus back on your home playlist. But it still doesn't do enough.”
Not enough really. one love This film is too simple to paint a compelling three-dimensional portrait of one of the greatest musical artists of the 20th century. It is a celebration of Marley's music, not a true depiction of the ups and downs of his life on and off stage.
Bob Marley: One Love Available to stream on Prime Video.
