6 Reasons to Watch Bob Marley: One Love
One of the most fascinating things about public figures is their influence and impact. As introversion would have it, I intently observe and seek to understand the demi-god-like adoration we sometimes ascribe to our favorite celebrities. Why do we do it? What about them pulls us into their orbit?
In anticipation of the Bob Marley: One Love film’s February 14, 2024 release date and on the heels of what would have been the secular prophetic icon’s 79th birthday, I find myself thinking about Kingston’s own global phenomenon, Robert Nesta Marley.
I don’t remember precisely how old I was when Bob was introduced to me or when I discovered his music, but I know each event was polarizing. I remember learning about Bob in primary school and having a nonchalant response. Then, discovering the icon’s artistry and deep diving into his activism garnered a new perspective and reverence.
Experiencing Bob’s music is visceral and spiritual. Not many things can bring me to tears, and yet, I’ve found myself tearing up to multiple Bob Marley and the Wailers (the band is an essential part of this experience) tracks. For this reason and several others, I wait in great anticipation with a hint of anxiety to see a synopsis of the martyr’s story shared on screen.
Whether you feel the same about Bob as I do or not, to celebrate his February 6th birthdate, here are six reasons why I believe everyone should watch the Bob Marley: One Love biopic:
MONEY MATTERS
With the newly launched Jamaica Screen Development Initiative (JSDI), the economics of the moviemaking business is more critical than ever (for Jamaica). It is no secret that the film business’s most significant concern for any production is profit and the bottom line. Though filmmaking sits at the center of the creative and cultural industries, its artistic and cultural significance is at the beck and call of a capitalist structure.
One of the industry’s ugly myths is linking race and foreign markets to low profit. Hollywood has long perpetuated the “Black is unbankable” trope and holds the international market with little regard. Bob Marley: One Love provides an opportunity to debunk both myths.
In a recent article, NPR wrote that over 1 million people who identify as Jamaican live in the United States, making up the most prominent foreign nationality. If all 1 million of us, the 800,000 across the UK, the entire Jamaican diaspora, and our friends support Bob’s story, we will make quite a statement.
One that proves Black stories and international stories are not financial risks or inferior financial investments. Instead, our stories are capable of significant box-office earnings and, therefore, should gain equal opportunities for our film practitioners.
As consumers, we are on the frontlines of creating historical change by using a single $18 ticket (a matinee will be cheaper) to disrupt Hollywood’s racialized barriers to entry. We did it for Black Panther; I have confidence we can do it again for yet another superhero.
FOR THE CULTURE
Nigeria’s graceful Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, one of my favorite storytellers, delivered arguably the century’s most important TedTalk, where she discussed the dangers of a single story. In her speech, Adichie mentions, “The danger of the single story is that it creates stereotypes. The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue. It is that they are incomplete. So they make one story become the single story,” which is “showing a people as one thing, as only one thing over and over again, and that is what they become.”
Jamaica’s representation in film has perpetuated the single story of ghettoization and Bad-manism. As a screenwriter and social scientist, I’ve vowed never to write a script where the main story is how excellent Jamaicans are at ensuring our atrocious crime rate maintains its global relevance. Embarrassingly, some of my favorite Jamaican films like Yardie, Shottas and Third World Cop share in this stigmatized version of the island.
Stuart Hall, Jamaican-British sociologist and cultural theorist, taught that visual representation in media is the privileged sign of late modern culture and can be a distortion or representation of reality. Maryann Erigha, Sociology professor, doubles down in her book, The Hollywood Jim Crow: The Racial Politics of the Movie Industry, “films are more than mere vehicles for profit, movies are powerful tools for shaping consciousness as cinema builds consensus around public and social issues; influencing peoples views about ideas and groups in society.”
The Jamaican culture is far too diverse and complex for the continuation of stories front-loaded with don-man and rude-bwoy culture, stories that do more work to distort the reality of our nation and its people. I get it; negativity sells. However, the Jamaican culture is more positive and feel-good than not. Bob Marley: One Love is an opportunity to lead a renaissance in Jamaican traditional screen culture and noteworthy Jamaican biopics.
Imagine a film about Stuart Hall, the Oppenheimer of Cultural Theory (The Stuart Hall Project documentary is a good watch), or one about Marcus Garvey, the leader of the Pan Africanist Movement who heavily influenced Malcolm X. Or how about Maurice Ashley, the first Black chess Grandmaster? If you love basketball, then surely you know that before Linsanity, Carmelo Anthony, and Jalen Brunson, there was a dude named Patrick Ewing who was a significant part of filling seats at New York Knick’s Madison Square Gardens. If hip-hop culture appeals to you, Clive DJ Kool Herc Campbell’s story of moving from Jamaica to the boogie-down Bronx during the crack era would be worth watching.
A significant part of representation is cultural citizenship, and Bob Marley: One Love allowed the local industry agency and autonomy over a truly Jamaican story. Over 80% of the onscreen talent were Jamaicans or of Jamaican descent. The University of the West Indies’ Language department also played a vital role in working to perfect Kingsley Ben-Adir’s use of Patois, the native dialect.
The film was shot in Jamaica and London, mainly involving Jamaican cast and crew. Representation is just as important behind the scenes as it is on screen. And though Jamaica will not profit much since the film is owned and distributed by Paramount, an American media conglomerate, supporting this film helps move the local industry in the right direction. We do our local talent, alternative stories, and culture a disservice by refusing to make it count at the box office.
THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND - AN ICON
About one month ago, one of the staff at work asked me where my accent was from. She noted that she didn’t want to be disrespectful, but though I sounded American, she could tell I was from somewhere else. To make her face less flushed and red with shame, I politely answered and said, “I’m Jamaican.” Rather than let the conversation die, she jokingly asked, “Did you know Bob Marley?” I replied, “I did not, but I wish I did.”
Another time, while shopping in Morocco, a vendor asked where I was from, and most naturally, I said, “Jamaica.” Sure enough, this man, whose primary language was Arabic and second language was French, replied with glee, “like Bob Marley.”
Encounters like these force me to question what about Bob makes him a topic of discussion in North Africa and the deep south of conservative Georgia. Bob is arguably one of the most influential artists of our lifetime, and Rolling Stone agreed when they ranked him number 11 on their 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list.
Marley is amongst the top-selling entertainers of all time, which is not an easy or accidental feat. His global impact makes him larger than life and certainly larger than Jamaica. Marley was posthumously inducted into the 1994 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and consistently sits in the top ten of the Forbes List of highest posthumous earners (twice at number 5). Over 400 books have been written about his life and legacy, and some thousands of scholarly articles and journalistic work. Though never nominated for a Grammy, he has multiple music in the Hall of Fame.
What I find fascinating about this film is that even in death, Mr. Marley continues to be a changemaker. Marley's music heavily influenced the end of apartheid in South Africa; his actions and music shifted the landscape of Jamaican politics and religious beliefs, inspired hope in socio-economically challenged homes, and today, his film is leading a revolution for Jamaica’s film industry. If this isn’t worth celebrating, I don’t know what.
So, If you watch for no other reason, watch at least to appreciate one of the greatest ever to do it.
THE MESSAGE
Reggae music has always been a type of citizen journalism, and Bob continued the trend of using the message in his music to inspire hope and upliftment but also as social commentary about the injustices at home and abroad.
The One Love message is evergreen in a world where hate is the default dictator of the natural order of things. As I write this, I think about the geo-political wars across the globe and the loss associated with intercommunity gun violence. The One Love message and Marley’s general message of resisting oppression and spreading peace can be applied to what we’re witnessing in Ukraine, Sudan, Niger, Palestine, Haiti, JAMAICA, and many other nations and communities.
The “One love, one heart, let’s get together and feel alright” lyrics aren’t just a feel-good kumbaya soundscape but are and always have been a call to action for humanity to be more humane, expressing love and care for each other at the highest degree. No wonder the BBC has dubbed “One Love” the anthem of the millennium. Time Magazine called Bob’s Exodus “the best album of the 20th century,” and The New York Times referred to Marley as the 20th century’s most influential artist.
If I haven’t made a strong enough case with reasons one to three, then perhaps the message in the music is enough persuasion for you to prioritize seeing Bob Marley: One Love in its opening week.
THE ‘ISMS and ‘SCHISMS
The US suffers from many social ills, and chief among them, in my opinion, is racism. Jamaica, on the other hand, though an equally racial and ethnically diverse nation, suffers most from classism, and we can thank colonialism for that.
The classist infrastructure of Jamaica means if one has wealth or comes from wealth, there is automatic power and prestige regardless of race or ethnicity (whereas wealth doesn’t guarantee power and prestige for BIPOC people in the US). And, if one comes from the lower rungs of the social pyramid, power and prestige are a distant dream and only bestowed if one moves up the social ladder.
In Bob’s case, not only was he born into poverty, but he was a part of the radical Rastafari movement and often voiced his displeasure and opposition to the government’s exploitation of the people.
Though embraced by the rest of the world, Jamaica, especially its upper class, never embraced the Rastafari movement. So, though the ‘likkle man from Trench Town’ became a megastar and musical phenomenon, he was never entirely accepted and lived “a king is never honored in his own country” experience.
Fast-forward to today, these same ‘isms and schisms’ upheld by Jamaica’s status quo continue to deny Bob Marley the highest honor of any citizen: National Hero. The hypocrisy is that Brand Jamaica is almost synonymous with Bob Marley’s name, and the irony is that the man who has made the nation’s music relevant is shunned for his non-conforming values.
“In the height of the Cold War in the 1970s, as the forces of capitalism, represented by the United States, and those of communism, represented by the Soviet Union, were fighting for power [in Jamaica], they knew not the hour, Marley represented that Third Way - that deeply nationalistic, non-aligned spirit that spoke against those isms and schisms.” - Ian Boyne, a Jamaican journalist
Maybe, just maybe, if we show this film our full support, the Jamaican government officials will move away from their classist ideologies and award him the honor he’s earned and rightfully deserves.
RITA MARLEY
Jamaican culture has a history of word-of-mouth storytelling. Listening to a Jamaican recount an event is the most entertaining experience ever. The attention to detail and animated expression style always amazes me. Many of the things we’ve come to know about our nation over the generations have been through stories learned from the matriarchs of our homes. Jamaican moms and grandmothers have a unique way of communicating with their children.
Remembering my dearly beloved grandmother, she was a living history text. Her ability to remember and share stories from colonial Jamaica was fascinating. I can’t remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday, and even in her late 80s, she could describe in detail the day Jamaica gained independence.
I assume the film is Rita’s memories on display. It makes sense that she was a crucial part of bringing Bob’s story to the screen because, in a way, it is hers, too. She lived it with him. Rita’s role in the screenplay became more apparent when I realized Bob’s oldest son, Ziggy Marley, was only about 13 when his father passed.
Rita is often mentioned as the background vocalist and wife who stayed through many counts of infidelity. But, she defines the saying, “Behind Beside every great man is a great woman.” I always thought Rita Marley never got the credit she deserved.
She was widowed with nine children, eight of whom were boys, and yet, she’s turned the Marley name into a lucrative global brand and empire by preserving the memory, story, and legacy of her late husband. This doesn’t happen without wisdom, vision, and tact.
Ms. Rita is portrayed in the biopic by British-Jamaican Lashana Lynch, who is known for playing strong female leads. Lynch has always shown love to the island of her mother’s birth, has the best Patois in the industry, and is a phenomenal actor. I’m excited to see Lynch’s portrayal of the quiet giant. Let’s all show up to give Ms. Rita the flowers she deserves.
If you’ve read this far, I sincerely hope your Valentine’s plans involve seeing this Jamaican love story. There are more than six reasons to see the film, but I hope the ones I’ve shared are compelling enough.
Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching, show integrity and dignity.
- Titus 2:7
Enjoy this live performance of my favorite Marley song, Redemption Song.
One Love, Friends.
