While couples were celebrating Valentine's Day, I was celebrating the release of the movie “Bob Marley: One Love.”
Advertised as a film that captures the story of famous reggae artist Bob Marley, I expected to see the essence of his life captured.
The movie was produced by Bob Marley’s kids, Ziggy Marley and Cedella Marley along with his widow Rita Marley, and to say I was eager would be an understatement.
Having already known a lot about Bob Marley and his life, I was expecting the movie to be a recreation of his upbringing in Trench Town, Jamaica, his rise to fame and the events leading to his death.
However, the focus of the film is the events leading up to the 1978 “One Love Peace Concert”, where Marley held up the hands of political rivals, Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley and Jamaica Labour Party leader Edward Seaga.
During this time in Jamaica, there was political conflict between the Jamaica Labour Party and the People's National Party.
The fight for control resulted in violence among opposing parties, according to a 1980 article by The Washington Post.
Political tensions were high in the country, and in 1976 while rehearsing for a concert there was an attempt to murder Bob Marley and his bandmates.
Depicted in the film was a reenactment of this incident, and despite already knowing what was going to happen, I was on the edge of my seat during that scene.
The casting of this film was scarily accurate, down to the mannerisms and the way the actors and actresses looked.
British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir did a beautiful job of portraying the late Bob Marley, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he continued to portray Bob Marley in future films.
Similarly, actress Lashana Lynch portrayed the strong-willed Rita Marley and the intricacies of both being Bob Marley’s wife and backup singer.
The synergy between Ben-Adir and Lynch truly convinced me that I was watching their lives unfold.
A large majority of the film was recorded on location in Jamaica, which brings not only accuracy but the energy and spirit of Bob Marley’s hometown.
Often directors manufacture sets to be as accurate to their film's location, had the director taken that route I feel like it wouldn’t have been as impactful.
What I struggled with throughout the film was that some of the scenes were flashbacks to Bob Marley’s childhood.
The stylistic choice to do this just isn’t my cup of tea, especially with how it was executed in this film.
Without context, audience members who aren’t familiar with Bob Marley’s life wouldn’t understand the importance of mentioning these memories.
I feel like if these childhood moments were pertinent to the storyline, they should have been used as a way to introduce the film.
Throughout the film interlaced with the main storyline and memories, there was an artistic choice to have a young Bob Marley running through a burning cornfield.
In the film a young boy runs through a cornfield while it slowly burns behind him, as the film progresses you see the same scene with the addition of a man on a horse chasing after the young boy.
As they reach the center of the cornfield, young Bob Marley and this man riding the horse meet. The man looks down at him and then turns away from him.
I interpreted this as the symbolism of the abandonment that Bob Marley felt when his father severed contact with him and his mother, Cedella Booker.
Bob Marley's father, Norval Marley, was a 50-year-old English colonialist who impregnated Cedella Booker, Marley’s 17-year-old mother, according to a webpage from the University of Vermont.
His parents would later get married but as Marley got older his father would completely abandon them, according to the same website.
The imagery of the cornfield then goes to a young Bob Marley in the cornfield alone. As he sits alone, another man approaches him, puts him on the back of the horse and rides away.
I could only assume that this was the way that the director and producer showed the importance of the Rastafari religion and the messiah, Emperor Haile Selassie.
Emperor Haile Selassie was the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974 and is recognized as the Messiah of the Rastafari religion, according to a webpage from the Swiss National Museum.
Having my own background knowledge, like knowing who Emperor Selassie was and what he looked like allowed me to understand why the director chose to include it in the movie.
But without that context or knowledge, I can imagine someone going to the theater and being extremely confused when watching these scenes.
Don’t get me wrong, the recreation of Bob Marley’s musical performances were spot on but I could tell the actors were lip-singing.
Certain musical elements the director used took away from the authenticity of some scenes.
To have remastered music overlaid with the time of the 1970s isn’t a choice that should have been made. I would have loved to have heard raw or older versions of the songs.
All in all, the film did a beautiful job of portraying the events leading up to the 1978 One Love Peace Concert and capturing the spirit of Bob Marley.
It saddens me that Bob Marley’s upbringing and his rise to fame weren’t shown more in the movie.
Though the film could have depicted more about Bob Marley’s life, I am left hopeful that the legacy of Bob Marley will continue to be represented in film.
