Do you think Reinaldo Marcus Green has ever seen Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story? There are several moments during Green’s latest, an unremittingly laudatory biopic about reggae legend and peace activist Bob Marley, where the musician stands recollecting a vision from his childhood before going out on stage. In the vision, he’s a small child running through a field of fire, pursued by a man in colonial garb on a horse. In these moments, it’s nearly impossible not to fall back on a quote from director Jake Kasdan’s consistently relevant 2007 parody of the musical biopic genre: “Dewey Cox has to think about his entire life before he plays.” Apparently, so does Bob Marley.
The rather clumsily titled Bob Marley: One Love is produced, in part, by Tuff Gong Pictures. Tuff Gong was formed by Marley’s band, The Wailers, as a musical label in 1970. As a holistic brand, it continues to be shepherded by his son Ziggy Marley who also serves as a producer on this film. To be clear, there’s no reason that a famous person’s family shouldn’t be involved in the making of a movie about their loved one’s life. Though it’s difficult to ignore the conflict of interest inherent when Ziggy says, in a pre-film introduction, that he was on set every day to make sure that the film “was as accurate as possible” in its depiction of his father. What do we lose in terms of emotional or dramatic currency when our cultural figures are depicted with such unquestioning praise? One Love wants to be a film about both Marley and the message of peace that he inspired, but it never manages to cohesively capture either.
Set in between the years of 1976 and 1978, One Love depicts the musician as a popular figure already deep into his storied career. As opening text informs us, Bob Marley (Kingsley Ben-Adir) has become Jamaica’s most popular musician, and he is now seeking to reunite and heal a country fractured by political violence by performing a peace concert in Kingston. Marley’s plans to perform, however well-intentioned, put his family in the crosshairs of senseless violence, leading to a botched assassination attempt that both he and his wife, Rita (Lashana Lynch), barely escape. In order to assure his family’s safety, Marley journeys to London, taking stock of his options and beginning his next recording project, 1977’s Exodus.
With the exception of its gripping introduction, most of Green’s film takes place during and after this period as the musician sets off on an expansive European tour that transforms him from Jamaican legend into global icon. The film’s intent is to explore the paradox at the heart of Marley’s legacy: a musical idol and political militant for peace who, despite uniting millions, was always at war with himself.
As with many musical biopics, Green’s film is at its best when it lets the music speak for itself. The sequences depicting the recording process of Exodus—which highlight the title track and another classic cut, “Jamming”—are the film’s most gripping passages. Additionally, several concert performances towards the beginning and end of the story effectively capture Marley’s vibrant energy as a live performer. The music and its message are exceptional, but that speaks more to Marley’s songwriting than Terence Winter, Frank E. Flowers, Zach Baylin and Green’s screenplay, which insists on the album’s artistic and political intent without transferring any of that energy into the filmmaking.
The film’s strongest attribute is Ben-Adir, whom despite the script’s deficiencies, manages to bring an intense and honest vulnerability to his depiction of a talented, brave and flawed individual unsure of how to act on his own legacy. Ben-Adir is a terrific actor, disappearing totally into the role with a physical and emotional dedication that resembles the best efforts that this popular cinematic subgenre has to offer. Lynch also injects pathos into her underwritten role as the woman who supported, and sometimes endured, the impulses of a man whose musical mission came at the expense of his role as a father and husband. Marley is a man who has endured much pain, and despite their occasional conflicts, it’s his and Rita’s mutual understanding for each other’s struggles that make them such a powerful pair. The film has little interest, beyond brief mention, to contend with Marley’s infidelity (he has children with other women), or any impulses that might contradict the story’s depiction of him as a peerless hero and advocate for those around him.
Compared to similar biographical works like Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom or Bohemian Rhapsody, One Love is neither better nor worse than most of its forebearers. At least it’s more tolerable than Bradley Cooper’s dreadful, Oscar-nominated Maestro, but it’s also far less enjoyable than 2019’s jukebox musical, Rocketman, or 2014’s criminally underrated Love & Mercy (containing perhaps the greatest on-screen depiction of the studio recording process in recent memory). The most unfortunate effect of the musical biopic is that by conforming an artist’s life to a well-trodden formula, you remove the essential aspects of what made a subject’s story worth telling in the first place. After watching One Love, you may walk away with slightly more knowledge about the recording process of Exodus, but you’ll learn precious little about Bob Marley himself, and at the end of day, isn’t that the point? Marley was an unapologetic revolutionary; his film is simply content to just play the hits.
Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures
The post Bob Marley: One Love appeared first on Spectrum Culture.