Bob Marley was a Jamaican singer, songwriter, and magician. He is known for popularizing Reggae music and spreading messages of peace, love, and unity through his music. Marley’s iconic songs like “One Love” and “No Woman, No Cry”  continue to inspire people around the world. His music and activism made a lasting impact on the world, and he is considered a cultural icon.

The movie Bob Marley: One Love is based on Bob Marley’s life from 1976-1978 where Marley is already a powerful political voice in Jamaica, planning a unity concert to stop the violence inflicted by two warring political leaders. Early in the movie the audience is introduced to his vastly large family as he had many kids through many different affairs, and they also learn that he loves jogging, playing soccer, and smoking marijuana. The audience also sees that Marley lives in a home surrounded by high walls and guarded by men with machine guns hinting that he is in danger being that he has such a strong political voice. 

In the movie it also shows when two men attempted to murder Bob Marley in his own home; they shot his wife in the head and Marley in the chest area.  Marley was shot because he was advocating for peace and unity and the political war leaders were not fond of it. They were both hospitalized with injuries, but thankfully both of them survived. Shortly after the shooting, Marley and the Wailers, his band, temporarily moved to London to recover and seek further medical treatment. While in London, he continued to work on his music and released the album Exodus.

At the end of the movie Bob Marley returns to Jamaica and performs his One Love concert where he brought together leaders of opposing political parties as a symbol of unity to stop the violence. The ending text of the movie states that Bob Marley passed away on May 11, 1981 from his cancer. 

I really enjoyed the film as they did a great job capturing Bob Marley and his incentives for making music. The camera angles and techniques were very well executed and utilized. Prior to watching the movie, I thought it was going to be focused on his upbringing and whole life, but instead it was focused around his rise to fame and then his passing. The actors were great and really showcased the culture, accents, and lifestyles really well. Finally, my favorite part of the movie was at the end when they showed real life recordings of Bob Marley performing on stage.