DIRECTOR: Reinaldo Marcus-Green
PRODUCERS: Ziggy Marley & Rita Marley & Cedella Marley & Robert Teitel &
Dedee Gardner & Jermey Kleiner
WRITERS: Reinaldo Marcus-Green & Zach Baylin & Terrence winter & Frank E. Flowers
PERFORMERS: Kingsley Ben-Adir Lashanna Lynch James Norton Tosin Cole
Aston Barrett, Jr. Anthony Welsh Savanna Hector Lewis Michael Gandolfini Nadine Marshall
Bob Marley was truly a one of kind, artist, performer and activist of peace and love. Everyone knows his music, but not his story and here we get a portrayal of that. Anyone who isn't familiar with Marley and his crusade against oppression should look at this and get a real glimpse at the man himself, what he had to endure, what he had to experience and what he did to change it for the better. This is the story of a one man's love for peace and unity, and his single-minded mission for what was known to be a historically significant moment in history. This is Bob Marley - One Love.
"One love, one heart. Let's get together and feel alright" With those lyrics and that song, Marley was all about getting people together and doing just that. But it didn't come easy nor simple either. In a time where peace and freedom were impossible in a certain continent, Jamaica was a war zone where no one was safe. But that never stopped Bob Marley from fighting for those things. Here, in the latest of docudramas, this gets the treatment some of us have been waiting for. Not your average biopic depicting the traditional rise and fall storyline, but just as engaging during those sequences as well.
This film takes deeper delve look into what life in Jamaica was like at the time and what it took to bring a devastating conflict to an end. Kingsley Ben-Adir portrays the reggae legend with conviction and believability to a level that you don't recognize. He didn't just play Bob Marley, he was Bob Marley. Adir really goes to town on this role, and whether this is his first major film or not, his performance here proves that even the unknown can bring to the table the better portrayals of any character they play real life based or fictional. 2015's Straight Outta Compton and 2014's Get on Up were the last two great biopics ever seen, but while they did what they did at the time of each film's release, this one does what those other two didn't do and that was aim the story around one thing and nearly not as several at once.
The writing of this film is very well constructed and thought out but leaves out how Marley rose to fame before his peace promotion or his childhood, alongside everything else that came to be before or after. Only depictions of his past life are told in flashbacks, and they only last a brief second or so, but they easily tie into his adulthood and that's what makes this work. Like in 2004's Ray we see Marley as a child in a certain stage in his life and he's either embracing it or running from it. This draws back to the story of Moses and the burning bush (EXODUS 3) as he is seen as a child running from the fiery site itself until confronted by a man on a horse supposedly calling him to come with him somewhere that he's supposed to go. Very good on the writer's end considering the circumstances of Marley's life at the time. The involvement of the surviving family members including Ziggy, Cedella and Rita Marley. This would not have been possible nor even a reality without them.
Maybe this wasn't the typical rise and fall story some might have expected, but let's at least be thankful for what we got with this. Sure, there's more to Bob Marley than what we see here, although this does him some justice if not completely enough. By the end of the film, I found myself not singing along to his songs featured but reflecting on listening to him growing up. Even at the last few moments, there was a moment where you felt teary eyed just knowing what was going to happen to him. There could have been more detail, a longer running time and a much deeper look into his life than what we got. Still, a well-deserved standing ovation than the film receives credit for. If Marley himself was alive, who knows what could have been added into the film? That we will never know, what we do know is what he did to achieve his goal and the tools he used to get it. Highly recommended for any and everyone, especially if you're a Bob Marley fan!!!
MY RATING: 3.5 out of 4