The movie “One Love” shows the career of Reggae artist, Bob Marley, while overcoming adversity, keeping values and uniting Jamaica into one.
“One Love” was released on Feb. 14, 2024 following the release of YG Marley’s single, “Praise Jah in the Moonlight,” which showed hints to Bob Marley from the album cover to the song itself, displaying many parts of “Crisis” by Bob Marley and the Wailers. Bob Marley was an influential artist in Jamaica during the 1980s. He managed to stop Jamaica from being at war and united the two political parties.
The movie was made by Marley’s Widow, Rita Marley, along with a lot of his children. Bob Marley was played by Kingsley Ben-Adir and Rita Marley by Lashana Lynch. They wanted to authentically represent Marley’s career in the form of a movie. This made the movie be loved more because of its authenticity. The movie has made over $80 million dollars within the first week.
The movie starts out with Bob Marley being interviewed by the press in Jamaica. One of the interviewers asks Bob Marley what the point of his “One Love” tour is. Bob Marley and his crew stated that their only mission was to try to unite Jamaica and stop the nation from being at war with each other. They stated that their reason had nothing to do with any political parties or any politics in general. They had only good intentions going into the tour.
After the interview, Marley and his whole crew went over to his house and had a gathering. Once everyone had left, two gunmen came into their property shooting Rita in the head while being in a car, Bob in the arm, and Don, the manager, who took six shots. This represented the 1976 assassination attempt. This brings in more realism and history while still trying to keep a storyline.
After that attempt, Marley kept hallucinating about a guy pointing a gun at him trying to kill him. This would keep happening at almost every concert.
Throughout the movie, glimpses of Bob Marley’s childhood are shown even into his teenage years where he then meets his wife, Rita. It shows how his dad had left him when he was a young kid. One of the more important scenes was of Bob Marley as a kid being surrounded by a field of fire while a man on a horse is after him. This scene is shown throughout the movie up until the end where he actually meets the man on the horse who he thought was a white but actually turned out to be a Black helping him. This gives us, as the audience, a better understanding of the kind of man that Marley had become.
During the course of the movie, Bob Marley is seen losing his focus on what he valued and the main reason for the songs he is making and the concerts he is holding. His wife, Rita tells him what is happening and that he is losing his focus. She states to him that he is going to parties held by prominent figures and going to bars which is something that he had never done. She tells him that she had known Bob when he had only one shirt.
The movie ends with Bob Marley and his crew coming back to Jamaica to perform his “One Love” concert. When he comes back, he sees that Jamaica has united and there is not as much violence as there used to be in the whole country.
Bob Marley later died in 1981 because of melanoma, also known as skin cancer. He is Jamaica’s biggest and most influential celebrity. His songs were more than just songs and lyrics. They were the unification of Jamaica.
