One of the underlying functions of any biopic ostensibly, is that it be an educational tool as well as a work of entertainment. It’s not the primary purpose obviously, and fiction movies have no obligation to be documentaries; but it’s understood that even with liberties taken, a biographical picture would be where you could at least learn some new facts about the subject. I don’t know much about the life and career of Bob Marley, and Bob Marley: One Love barely changes that.
It’s a movie that is happy to broadly allude to the political turmoil in Jamaica that resulted in an assassination attempt on Marley in 1976, a subsequent European tour that ended with his cancer diagnosis and return to his homeland, but it explores as little as possible the specific contexts pertaining to these; and as for Marley himself, while it engages in abstract glimpses of his childhood and introduction to and subsequent embrace of Rastafari spirituality, very little sense is actually communicated of his views and off-stage personality.
Bob Marley: One Love, which is directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green of King Richard, has producer credits for several members of Marley’s family, including his widow Rita (played in the film by Lashana Lynch), a successful and talented musician in her own right. And this may answer for the specific lack of specificity in the portrayal of their patriarch -much like the non-Freddie Mercury members of Queen were depicted in the safest most boring ways possible in Bohemian Rhapsody. One Love doesn’t go quite that far -Marley is not ever a dull figure, perhaps due in part to the surprisingly good performance of Kingsley Ben-Adir.
Like most of the cast, Ben-Adir is British and doesn’t look much like the legendary reggae singer, yet he captures very well the performance style, body language, and the general groovy spirit of the guy. The way he composes himself, interacts with others in a laid-back way that nonetheless reinforces his confidence and authority -even his singing is quite impressive. Lynch is pretty good too, even as her role is naturally sidelined to that typical of the spouse in these musician biopics -broadly supportive outside of one obligatory scene where she must challenge her husband.
Customarily, this might be bent around drug use or some similar major vice, but it is one thing this film is free of. Marley and his band get high -don’t get me wrong- but never is it presented as a problem, it’s just part of his character. And maybe it’s another effect of the film’s closeness to the Marley family, his main struggle is simply against his own symbol and that vague philosophy of spreading joy and freedom. But as platitudes, these don’t mean much of anything, and the movie’s refusal to address any aspect of both Marley’s politics and the specificity of the issues facing Jamaica -beyond simply deep partisan divides and heavy gang activity- does a disservice to his activism and condescends to the audience. Worse, it presents both him and his Rastafari philosophy in a broadly apolitical light, which was absolutely not the reality. Post-movie montage shows footage of the real Marley on stage brokering a peace between two rival political leaders -neither of whom appears in the movie with any kind of positions identified in relation to the national crisis. Ultimately it’s rather cowardly, and conspicuously hangs over much of the movie and the terribly articulated nature of Marley’s larger goals.
There is additionally a particular cynicism detected in how much of the story takes place through his residence in Britain and along his European tour without touching on Jamaica -supposedly a linchpin of his musical identity and the movie’s priorities. Certainly it presents the album, Exodus, in a prominent light for its acclaim and accolades within Marley’s larger discography (including one very forced scene wherein a record executive played by Michael Gandolfini doubts the marketability of it); but the fact of this being a British movie with again so few Jamaicans actually cast as Jamaican characters, attaches a shallowness to what could have been an inauspicious choice. One of Marley’s great aims is his desire to take the tour to Africa, which he prioritizes even above an American tour (his Pan-Africanism is one of the few cultural-political belief sets the film has little issue alluding to), and ultimately he did get to do it as the post-credits montage reveals -a more fascinating juncture in his career cut off by this film’s choice of climax.
But his return to Jamaica amidst political strife and the danger of having survived an assassination attempt is a pretty good hook on paper for a triumphant end to the narrative. And yet it is fundamentally hollow in lieu of both how undeveloped the politics are and how inelegantly the themes of home and homecoming are set up. There isn’t much of an effect either, as his big comeback is mostly limited to a glimpse of performing a sold-out concert in Kingston without engaging with the actual conditions of his homeland, merely again alluding to them in non-specific terms.
A few of Marley’s songs are performed across the movie, though never in full and not for significant stretches. It’s one thing that seems to set One Love apart -it is not so much about the music as it is about the personality and vibes of the musician. More time is devoted to his infected toe injury, ultimately the first sign of his melanoma that would claim his life a few years later. Nonetheless Ben-Adir maintains his energy, which is really the crux of the snippets of performances we do see. Still, the movie can’t help indulge in a few genre tropes, such as in the whole conversation around the Exodus album cover and the classic accidental inspiration for a song lyric that seems to be a resigned requirement of every musical biopic.
Bob Marley: One Love is a movie that portrays the personality and spirit of its artist fairly effectively whilst rendering generic his more specific attributes and beliefs -of which I as the uninformed viewer am still in the dark about. There’s a scene where Bob and Rita are having an argument and she makes reference to children he had had through affairs, and it is striking how such a fact clashes so much with the version of Marley the film chooses to show us. I’m not even sure where these children are. This movie eschews some aspects of the conventional biopic, but plays strongly into others; and while it explores its subject with some introspection and even a genuine fascination in Rastafari, it is altogether more interested in the image of Marley than the man himself.
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