One Love is a definite film on the life and times of Bob Marley

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

The corona virus path’s of devastation has abated.  That has given relief to many, who want to be and about, including gathering at festivals and concerts in theatre venues. In the public domain’s memory, the dangerous virus  is also fading away, with the only remaining pain, that will of course not go away in our lifetime, being the loss of friends and relatives to the disease.

However this does not mean that it has been entirely banished from our lives. But there is no doubt that its lingering amidst us in the air we breathe has thinned and its danger is diminished. The possibility of being infected in public spaces is a remote distance.

It is with this in mind that on Saturday, February 17, 2024, with confidence, I made my way to Cinema Nouveau in Rosebank. Since the news came out that the Bob Marley biopic was out and the world was going crazy, yearning to watch the film, I too was in a similar mood. After all, who has not been touched by Bob Marley and his music?  

Personally it has been the music of my youth, up to adult life, and am pretty sure that I am not alone in this addiction. Especially with the global response that has been received since the screening of the biopic was announced, coinciding with the Valentine’s Week, and the local distributor of this movie, Ster-Kinekor, did not shy away to market it as a Valentine’s Day’s offering.

That was a good marketing gimmick. But One Love, did not even need that. After all, this is a film about a music genius, a person pg mythological qualitiess, whose presence in people’s lives through his music and through his philosophy of social justice and racial equality, is today stuff of legend. His mythological presence in people’s consciousness shall always be there. Ever present among people,  black or white, young and old. Globally.

One Love takes you back to the time when Marley was young. Growing up in the Jamaican Ghetto of Trench Town.  Abristling and thriving chaos. Violence, poverty and luckily, creativity, also was a defining feature of the youth’s life. Marley was one of the youths that managed to outgrow the violence and the limiting circumstances that several others of his generation remained trapped in. Music was his passport to freedom. Freedom from poverty and hopelessness that saw others remain un-hinged from.

Personally Marley’s youth was also of unique circumstances. Born of a white father who abandoned him and his black mom in the Ghetto before he became even a teen, today it is a remarkable story of how music can heal wounds and a broken spirit caused by abandonment and rejection by those close to one. Such as Marley’s British father.

That moment of abandonment is captured so well in the film that you as a viewer feel the pain the young Marley must have felt to hear his after tell his mother that he was leaving them, galloping off in his horse without evening saying bye to his son. Let alone a hug. It is a moment in the film that still haunts me even now as I write this. This made me realize the pain that as parents, we sometimes inflict on our young children by abandoning them. a very much present feature of modern South Africa. That is the only depressing part of One Love.

The rest of it however is an epic journey that the film manages to carry you along with. Witnessing the rise and rise of Marley and the Wailers as the scale the heights of success globally and back home in Jamaica.

This is as Marley organized a concert that saw warring parties come together and their followers put aside their guns and celebrate peace and feel the healing power of music in a full stadium. Watching that moment, leaves one with a clear idea and conviction of the healing power of music. When people say, music heals and music brings people from diverse backgrounds together, it is no exaggeration. Nor is it idle talk. But getting there was not easy as the film makes one feel the tension in the air among the supporters of the two warring parties in the Jamaica of 1976.

You can almost see the thickness of the mood of violence that the youth was haunted with. They were ready and crazy to spill blood in the streets. Marley even survived an assassination attempt that saw Rita, his wife, hospitalized. The bullet was obviously meant for Marley for daring organizing a peace concert. That did not stop him from forging ahead, a brave act in the face of massive resistance and the risk of violence among the people.

The film however eventually captures a mood of happiness and wild dancing by the crowd. Marley is depicted bringing the two leaders both on stage in a moment that feel surreal. Music had won the day. Marley managed to do the unthinkable in the face of massive resitance and doubts about his peace concert.

However with the unwavering support of his producer/manager Chris Blackwell, a young white man, well connected to influence and money, and a good ear and the wisdom to listen to  the then new sound of reggae that Marley had discovered in the ghetto and was experiment with, Bob Marley and The Wailers became a global success. This is especially with the release of Exodus, and the European tour going by the same name. Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, France and the list goes on. All these places, the series of concerts were sold out.

Marley was able to create music that connected with the people through their hearts and minds. His philosophical and religious grounding of his compositions was his religion –Rastafarianism, influenced by the belief and philosophies of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, a philosophy and religion that Marley passionately embraced which preaches peace, respect  and non violence.

However in the film, Marley was to be tested as he was forced by one fake promoter who pretended that he was going to organize a tour to Africa, to react physically to the provocation. This is after Marley discovered all about the African tour that Marley desired so much, was a lie. AS a result, Marley gave the man more than a few claps, only to be restrained by his ever supportive wife, Rita, part of the band as a vocalist. That episode was well acted. Instead of making you as a viewer see Marley as a violent person, it actually leaves you with the impression that Marley was after all, human. Imperfect. Not the mythological figure who could not get angry even under extreme provocation.

Another episode that makes one to understand Marley as an ordinary human being also vulnerable to challenges that affect us mere mortals, is a scene where there is a depiction of a confrontation between Marley and Rita: Reason: Petty jealous between lovers. That is to be expected is it not so, especially considering that Marley was at the top of his career, a global phenomenon, with scores of adoring fans following him wherever he went?  

Again I like the fact that this episode strips Marley of his mythological status –making him once again human, susceptible to the challenges us ordinary people face in life. In other words, One Love, is not a film that only praises Marley in relation to his musical success.  It captures his life in its entirety.  This makes this film a very important documentary of the global phenomenon that Marley was. It is a Marley definitive film even.

I would recommend this film to anyone who wants to understand the life and times of Bob Nesta Marley –his music and his life. Marley who died in 1981 due to a race cancer type, had long seen his yearning of performing in Africa fulfilled the previous year. That is when he performed at Zimbabwe’s independent celebrations in 1980 as the country transitioned from Rhodesia into Zimbabwe.

If reggae is more your style, you can enjoy a pre-screening of the much-anticipated Bob Marley One Loveat select Ster-Kinekor cinemas on 14 February, before the film’s general release on 16 February.

IN this film the reggae icon Marley, is played by Kingsley Ben-Adir. The film also stars James Norton and Lashana Lynch, and is directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green.

You can book your ticketsat www.sterkinekor.com or download the SK App on your smartphone. For news and updates, go to Facebook: Ster-Kinekor Theatres | follow Ster-Kinekor on Twitter: @Ster-Kinekor. For all queries, call Ticketline on 0861-Movies (668 437).