Review of the film “Bob Marley: One love” by Reynaldo Marcus Green

On Valentine’s Day, Reynaldo Marcus Green’s film Bob Marley: One Love opened worldwide. The role of the king of reggae was played by Kingsley Ben-Adir. In the first days of release, the film grossed more than $30 million, which Igor Gavrilov I never expected it from a fairly ordinary biopic.

It’s hard to make a feature film about the life of Bob Marley when there is a brilliant documentary film “Marley” (2012). Its director, Kevin MacDonald, focused on Bob Marley’s decision to take part in political processes on his native island of Jamaica, despite the assassination attempt on his family, and the reconciliation of the leaders of opposing national parties right at the musician’s concert. Now, when music has suffered a complete fiasco in public life and musicians not only do not unite anyone, but, on the contrary, are in a hurry to scatter on different sides of various barricades, watching MacDonald’s film is very useful. Moreover, this episode of Marley’s biography is mentioned in Reynaldo Marcus Green’s film “Bob Marley: One love” literally in passing.

What interested the creators of the biopic in the story of Bob Marley? Maybe his special attitude to the institution of marriage (11 children from 7 women are mentioned in the singer’s biographies)? Or the metamorphoses of his spiritual life: Rastafarianism occupied the main place in it, but he died a child of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. In many ways, beyond his contributions to music, Bob Marley was a unique member of the human race. But even his death, which was the result of refusing treatment for a sports injury, is presented in the film illogically and briefly.

Reynaldo Marcus Green’s task was to completely glorify the singer. Serial actor Kingsley Ben-Adir has only appeared in a leading role once – as Malcolm X from the film One Night in Miami. In One Love, Ben-Adir looks like a product of artificial intelligence: a perfectly proportioned character with an even complexion, looking thoughtfully into the distance, holding a book by black activist Marcus Garvey – this is a very big contrast to the real Bob Marley, whom we see in this the same film in chronicle footage. The actor failed to convey the feeling of Marley being in a stream of enlightened trance, pure happiness and blissful madness. When you look at the real Marley, saying that he ate sunlight doesn’t seem like an exaggeration, but Ben-Adir is more focused on cinematic poses. The only thing that should be attributed to his unconditional creative victories is that he himself sang all the songs for the film and played the guitar himself.

The creators of the biopic pay a lot of attention to the life of Bob Marley, his wife Rita and his band in London between 1976 and 1979. Critics rightly note that it is unclear from the film whether he missed his native Jamaica or finally merged with the turbulent London of the punk revolution. Punk culture took a lot from reggae; Marley himself said that “punks are just as outcast as Rastas,” but in the film, from the scene of The Clash concert, it is not even clear whether Bob Marley and his colleagues liked the group. And filmmakers pay minimal attention to the individuality of The Wailers musicians. Yes, they have dreadlocks of different lengths – but overall they are just a group of Bob Marley fans.

There are two types of biopics of musicians. Some are made without the approval of the heirs of the main characters, and then you get something like the John Ridley film “Jimi Hendrix”, which did not have Hendrix’s music. Others are filmed under the control of heirs and participants in the events, and sometimes this is harmful, as in the case of “Bohemian Rhapsody” (Queen), and sometimes it is beneficial, as in “Rocketman” (Elton John). The ideal option is a complete rethinking of the figure of the main character and radical dramatic solutions, as in Todd Haynes’ film about Bob Dylan “I’m Not There.”

If you look at the credits of the film “Bob Marley: One love”, the name Marley will dazzle your eyes. It seems that all living relatives of Bob Marley took part in its production, and the final word in the discussion of the leading actor was given to the son of singer Ziggy Marley. On the list of producers of the film there was, it seems, only one person with a different last name – Brad Pitt. But his company, Plan B, worked on the film with Tuff Gong Pictures, also owned by the Marley family. In such a situation, there was no chance of not getting a superhero on screen.

Nevertheless, the film’s distribution results so far exceed expectations. The reason is simple: the film features truly great Bob Marley music, and a lot of it. The pleasure of listening to it in a cinema hall outweighs all the shortcomings of the film. Like many unsuccessful biopics, Bob Marley: One Love evokes at least one positive emotion – the desire after the film to listen to the songs again and turn up the volume. Which, of course, only benefits the copyright holders.