Review of One Love

Holt Walker (11) looks at the poster of the film Bob Marley: One Love. Released on Valentine's Day, it made a boom in the box office. Photo credit: Jackson Feeney.

With much anticipation and hype leading up to its release, the film Bob Marley: One Love, a biopic about the life of Jamaican musician Bob Marley, quickly became a must-see film. With stars like Kingsley Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch portraying their roles as Bob Marley and Rita Marley, expectations were at an all-time high (pun intended).   

The introduction of the film drops the viewer right into the mist of a political battle between two figures that plan on running Jamaica. Bob Marley, in the cross hairs of both parties, wants to stay neutral and support and play for the people of Jamacia.  

The soundtrack is one of the best with Bob Marley and the wailers classics like Three Little Birds, Redemption Songs, and Jamming. I thought the film incorporated the music very well with smooth transitions and at appropriate times. 

The plot in the beginning was a little confusing, because it skips the very beginnings of Marley’s life and goes straight into an energetic scene before a major concert in Jamaica. It leaves the viewer asking a lot of questions: How did he get there? And who is Bob Maley?  

The film later adds background information by showing flashbacks of young Marley taking a Bible from his mom and his unknown father running through a burning field. This scene threw me off, because it was very fast and unclear. The pace of the movie speeds up preluding the concert in Jamaica.  

However, the pace of the movie dramatically slows when Bob and Rita Marley are shot. The assassination attempt was unsuccessful.  The film then quickly transitioned into the concert. Before every concert Marley went into a meditative state and hummed his song Redemption Songs.  

After the concert, Bob Marley moved to London, England, to get away from the violence in Jamaica. The movie is slow paced while he is living in London. Marley is in the low of his life at his time getting in an argument with Rita because he figured out his manager was stealing. Bob Marley and the Wailers played concerts and created songs in their studio. The film started to pick up pace and flow after Bob Marley and the Wailers created the album Exodus. After major success in Europe and the U.S., Bob Marley returned to play in more concerts in Jamaica. Marley was diagnosed with skin cancer and an infection on his toe, that he got from playing soccer and would not heal.  

The cinematography was spectacular. It was sharp and clear and allowed for a lot of emotion to be shown and connected with the audience. I thought the visual were very artistic with a lot of Jamaican culture. 

The soundtrack is one of the best with Bob Marley and the wailers classics like Three Little Birds, Redemption Songs, and Jamming. I thought the film incorporated the music very well with smooth transitions and at appropriate times. 

The plot was a little confusing. There were a lot of unanswered questions about Marley's childhood, but it did a great job showing how Marley became an international phenomenon and his relationship with his band and his family. 

Bob Marley: One Love was a great movie to learn about who Bob Marley is and what he did. It helps to show his situation in Jamica and his belief that everyone should love one another instead of fight.