Review of Bob Marley: One Love, directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green

In the summer of 2024, I was given the opportunity of a lifetime. I was given a second Critical Language Scholarship from the U.S. State Department, which was for Korean language. That meant I was sent to Busan, South Korea, and it would be fully funded for the eight weeks that I am there.

That said, I was flying from Dulles Airport to San Francisco for the first leg of my journey. I had to go to SFO first because my cohort members were staying the night before we landed in South Korea. And because I was flying United on this leg, the screen on the back of the seat was satellite only.

I was kind of shocked to see this honestly when I boarded the flight, but accepted my fate. If you wanted to watch a movie, it had to be in the middle or wherever the satellite signal picked up it was at. It was also the same movies on the flight the entire time, as they played on an endless loop.

All of this is to say that I ended watching Bob Marley out of boredom. I had nothing else to watch that was of interest, so I clicked this channel and it thankfully was at the beginning.

Let’s get into the review now before I start rambling too much!

The story of Bob Marley’s rise until his untimely death.

We begin this movie in conflict during the year 1976. Jamaica is going through unrest, and the sociopolitical frameworks that have held the country somewhat together are unraveling. Ordinary people are getting sucked into violence, and musician Bob Marley decides he wants to do something.

He announces he will have a Smile Jamaica concert to try and promote peace. But as he prepares for the concert with his band, potential assasins come to their home and try to shoot everyone inside. Bob and his wife are put in the hospital from their wounds, but he’s saddened by what happened.

So when he stands on stage at the concert, Bob decides to show the audience the wounds. He walks off stage after that, and tells his wife they need to go to the United States. The band goes to London to make their next albums. There, he asks Rita to come to England, and then the group records the album Exodus.

Little do they know this is going to become quite a big hit, and then the world becomes aware of what reggae music is, as well as the Rastafari movement. They begin preparations for a world tour, and Bob decides to add stops in Africa.

However, Rita disagrees with this, and their marriage starts to unravel at the seams, too. Turns out neither of these two have been faithful all of this time, and Rita is probably growing more frustrated with the fact her husband is running all over the world instead of being at home.

Other problems show up when Bob also starts a fight with his manager, Don. Things come to a halt when Bob goes to the doctor after discovering a toenail infection. He happens to have a rarer form of skin cancer, and he doesn’t really want to go under extensive treatment to fix it.

That said, he needs to come to turn with his life. He amends his wrongs with Rita and his manager, and then makes the executive decision it’s time to go back to Jamaica after all these years. They come home to a huge crowd. Later, the gunman from earlier in the movie comes and asks for forgiveness, which Bob says he gives.

Bob writes a song about reconciling, then shows it to his wife and kids. Rita tells him it’s time for a peace concert, and Bob decides to perform it, “One Love,” at a Jamaican concert.

The movie then shows clips during the concert in real-life, and how the rivaling factions’ heads in Jamaica joined him on stage. Bob Marley dies at the age of 36 in 1981, much too soon.

Overall Thoughts

I don’t know if I would’ve watched this movie all the way through if I had more options. Honestly, its pacing was a huge problem for me, and it leaned a bit too melodramatic in the delivery of lines and how scenes played out sometimes. It wasn’t exactly the highlight of all of the movies I watched during this time.

That said, I do think movies like these are important. A lot of people no longer know Bob Marley, having not been alive when he did his work and made music, and it’s content like this that helps us pass the knowledge down to the next generation.

I think the vision and the direction is what didn’t land for me throughout the course of this film, which explains my lukewarm reaction. Maybe someone else out there liked it more than I did, which is totally fine in the long run! Taste is subjective.

Go watch it if you’re interested. Don’t let some bad reviews get in your way.

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