On February 14th Bob Marley: One Love was released. The movie is a biopic about Bob Marley’s life and his influence with jamaica’s independence movement. One Love has a 42% rotten tomatoes score and a 6.5/10 on IMDb.
For those who didn’t know the history behind jamaica’s independence and rastafarianism it would be slightly difficult to follow. If you were one of those people I can simplify both for you. The early 20th century Jamaica was filled with lots of new beginnings and new ideas. Some of which included black nationalism and black empowerment. One of the main voices behind both was Marcus Garvey. He had preached to jamaica’s the idea of financial independence from the english people. That is one of the many factors which contributed to Jamaica’s independence.
Two cousins, Norman Manley and Alexander Bustamante, created the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union. The BITU granted Jamaica universal suffrage in 1944 and virtual autonomy in 1947. This was the start to full independence. Once Jamaica gained full independence (in 1962) the political parties People’s National Party (PNP) and Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) were born. Both were ruled by one of the cousins. PNP being Manleys and JLP being Bustamantes. Though they were cousins they were each other’s competition.
Once the 70s rolled around Norman Manley’s son, Michael Manley, led to PNP. Manley believed in a policy of taxation that would fund social services. Although Jamaica’s economy could not handle this situation.Manley had also been in close ties with Fidel Castro, Cuba’s President because Manley had strong thoughts about socialism. Before the 1976 election many Jamaicans resorted to urban warfare to show their opinion of the situation. The majority wanted Sagan to win, a representative of the JLP. The cold war and the fight between Seagan and Manley played a key role in the popularization of reggae and the element that created Exodus.
At the beginning of One Love we aren’t given a whole lesson on the history but given you now have the knowledge the rest of the movie should make more sense. Through the first half of One Love we are given a glimpse into Jamaica’s reality. I think the struggles the audience was shown were able to give us the idea of how bad Jamaica had it during this time.
One major point to the movie was obviously Bob Marley’s music and the creation of Exodus. I loved how the movie conveyed the sequence of Bob in London having a rough time to Bob having the idea to create Exodus. In his concert scenes the actor did an amazing job “becoming bob” with his visual performances. Though Kingsley Ben Adir lip synced most of the songs he did a great job singing and playing the guitar in the couple of scenes he did.
The outfits in the movie were amazing as well. All of Bob and Ritas outfits gave off 70s combined with rastafari inflections. To say the least, Rita’s outfits were one of the highlights of the movie for me.
While talking about One Love the majority of people I’ve talked with have expressed their confusion with the ending of the movie and Bob’s recurring dreams. I can explain some of it. Bob and many reggae artists of this time believed and promoted rastafarianism. Rastafarianism is an abrahamic religion. This means the religion is based around Abraham. Rastafarianism is a combination of Judaism and Christianity. The only difference between Rastafarianism and the other two is a Rastafarian believes Africa is the Zion, and Africans are one of the tribes of israel. In his dream young Bob is running away from the burning field. And then a man on a horse appears. That man is Haile Selassie I, the former emperor of Ethiopia and a god-like figure in Rastafarianism. The dream is an interpretation of Bob leaving Jamaica and rastafarianism for a better life in London. At the end Selassie says “You are my son. It is time to come home.” So Bob returns back to Jamaica and restores his ties with Rastafarianism.
Overall when you know the context behind certain things in the movie you are able to enjoy it better. One Love is an amazing biopic of Bob Marley and his efforts to make peace within Jamaica and all over the world.
