Bob Marley: One Love
"Bob Marley: One Love" movie review
Alyssa Kennedy '27
Around Campus Editor
Robert Nesta Marley, formally known as Bob Marley, was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and reggae singer up until his death in 1981. The movie “Bob Marley: One Love” offers viewers a new perspective of not only Marley’s reggae lifestyle, but his inspiring journey from poverty to stardom.
Marley utilized his natural gift of singing to advocate for peace and love throughout not only his home country of Jamaica, but around the world. Surprising to many, Marley’s new movie sheds light on his profound relationship with God.
Marley used his faith to write heartfelt music about the injustices and sorrows of the world around him. Therefore, in almost every one of Marley’s songs, there is a quote from the bible.
I feel that this side of Bob being shown to viewers was a very good decision because it shows the world how much Bob loved God and through this love, he was reminding his followers that there can be everlasting peace between their conflicting parties of authority.
An introduction to the movie was done by one of Bob’s 11 children, Ziggy Marley. In which Ziggy stated how he and his mother, Rita, were on the set of the movie almost every day in order to ensure that Bob’s story was accurately represented.
Bob Marley’s father, Norval Marley, was a Jamaican-white man who never acknowledged Bob as his son, and left his wife Cedella Booker. After his father left, Marley’s mother left him in order to create a new life for herself in Delaware. Leaving Marley alone in Jamaica where he met his wife, Rita, who like him, too had parents who left her.
Due to Marley’s own father leaving him, he embraced his journey of fatherhood by having 11 kids and loving all of them profoundly.
As fans delve deeper into the movie, they see how he was attacked in his residence in Jamaica by seven armed gunmen. The movie then showed how after the shooting that could have killed Marley, Rita and Taylor, Marley decided to say “Mi-Gaan” (good bye) to his Jamaican home by sending his wife and his kids to America while he took up a new residence in London, England.
During his UK residence from 1976-1979, Bob Marley and The Wailers recorded their albums “Exodus” and “Kaya.” “Exodus” then stayed number 1 on the British album charts for 56 consecutive weeks.
Christina Luna Simons '24 singing Bob Marley's classic song "One Love."
I feel Bob’s story was accurately portrayed and that this movie really did Marley justice to where people will no longer just see him as a man who wanted fame but as a man who wanted peace for his country.
In 1977, the popular reggae singer was diagnosed with a type of malignant melanoma under the nail of his big right toe. Marley later discovered that this cancer was not due to a soccer match he played earlier that year, but it was actually a symptom of an already existing cancer.
While battling cancer, in 1978, Bob Marley and the Wailers returned to Jamaica to perform another political concert called the “One Love Peace Concert” in an additional effort to calm the warring parties of government.
In the end, Bob Marley’s unwanted treatment for his melanoma diagnoses caused his tragic death on May 11th,1981, leaving the world heartbroken, yet inspired to be the best you can be towards humanity, your country and your belief in God.
In the end, this movie is a fantastic choice for anyone who loves Bob Marley or for someone who wants to learn more about what it is like to live a reggae lifestyle.