Starring: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch, Jesse Cilio, James Norton, Michael Gandolfini, Nadine Marshall, Anthony Welsh
OUR RATING: ★★★☆☆
Story: Bio-drama directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green. Bob Marley: One Love (2024) centers on the life of legendary reggae musician Bob Marley (Kingsley Ben-Adir) overcoming adversity and the journey behind his revolutionary music.
Where to Watch:
'You'd be surprised what we can build from nothing.' - Bob Marley: One Love Share on X
Bob Marley: My goal is to unify the people.
Bob Marley: Well, every government on the face of this earth is illegal, man. Not one of them is legal. That’s why me don’t deal with no politics. And, yeah, reggae music come to feed a revolution that no guns can stop.
Bob Marley: [singing] Don’t worry about a thing. Because every little thing is going to be alright.
Bob Marley: Me see it in a vision, you know. The shooting. Me never listen. I’m a never believe seh my own people them would try kill me. Is Jah make that happen?
Mortimer Planno: That’s not the right question.
Bob Marley: Then a what?
Mortimer Planno: Not why them try kill you, but why them could not succeed.
Mortimer Planno: [to Bob] Rastafari know there is a purpose and a reason for everything. So what you a go do with this chance Jah give you?
Mortimer Planno: Robbie, when your family reject you, Rastafari accept you.
Bob Marley: [referring to the lions in Trafalgar Square] Them take the conquering lion and a try tame him. Yeah, man. Plenty people walk past everyday and them see it, but them no see the meaning of it, you know?
Teen Rita Marley: Rasta know that we are all one. Words like “you”, “me”, “they”, and “them” separate people. That’s why we say “I and I”.
Teen Bob Marley: So is a unity thing?
Teen Rita Marley: No. I-nity.
'Sometime, the messenger has to become the message.' - Rita Marley (Bob Marley: One Love) Share on X
Bob Marley: It’s time for get back in the studio.
Chris Blackwell: What do you have in mind?
Bob Marley: Something different. Something big.
Bob Marley: Everyone need a message. Me have no time for waste. We need to reach a new audience. Me want to cross everybody with this next record.
Bob Marley: Music will run like river.
Bob Marley: Me feel like me can’t find the right sound for this record, you know. Something still missing.
Bob Marley: [to Rita] Me can’t make this album without you, you know.
Bob Marley: Them don’t have to like it. Them just have to hear it, and when them hear it, them will like it.
Bob Marley: For we, the music and the message are the same thing. Can’t separate.
Bob Marley: This reggae music is the vehicle. And this album going to transmit the message to everybody on the face of this earth today, because them must unite. Yes I. Must have unite.
Rita Marley: The melody could use a little work.
Bob Marley: Well, you know, me figure it out little by little.
Rita Marley: I always like your love songs. Don’t let what them did to us take away that side of you, Bob. You hear me?
Bob Marley: Me not in this thing for my ego, brethren. Me in it because, you know, me in it because of a cause.
Bob Marley: Reggae is a people music. It appeal to the natural self of everyone.
'Reggae music is the consciousness of the people coming together.' - Bob Marley: One Love Share on X
Marcel: You’re the Third-World superstar.
Bob Marley: No, I no superstar. I Rasta.
Chris Blackwell: He can be both. He’s both.
Bob Marley: Oh, you think, me would change?
Rita Marley: Some things don’t change, but some things definitely change.
Rita Marley: I had offers. And I give them up for the message. For us! And you throw it in me face! Who really know you? Who really care about you, Bob?
Rita Marley: [to Bob] You swim in pollution, you get polluted. We used to talk about this and everything else when you only had one shirt! I give you everything you ask me for. Everything! You so naive.
Bob Marley: The ruled will rise up against the rulers.
Bob Marley: Them say me have cancer. I and I alright, man. Them can’t raas kill me.
Bob Marley: Never want to burden you, Rita.
Rita Marley: All I ever wanted to do was to help you carry the weight. This no different than any other time.
Bob Marley: I never know so much struggle from the day I born. Everything just happened. You know? What them think me can bring peace if me can’t even get a little peace for myself?
Rita Marley: And you can’t see the reason?
'All that struggle. That's the source of your power.' - Rita Marley (Bob Marley: One Love) Share on X
Rita Marley: The stone that the builder refuse become the head cornerstone.
Rita Marley: [to Bob] You have plenty life to live and enough work to do.
Bob Marley: I no carry no vengeance. Rastafari is a seed planted in the heart. Only you can redeem yourself.
Rita Marley: [as Marley sings his Redemption Song] When you write that?
Bob Marley: All my life.
Rita Marley: Yeah. That mean you ready.
Reporter: So what’s changed, Bob? What’s made you return to Jamaica to play a peace concert now? Don’t you fear for your life?
Bob Marley: Well, my life is not important to me. If my life is only for me, my own security, then me no want it.
Bob Marley: My life is for people. That’s the only consciousness I have in myself, that I can be beneficial to a people.
Bob Marley: We can’t think about vengeance and do the work that must be done.
Reporter: Do you really think this world can make it?
Bob Marley: Make it? Yeah. We must make it. You know? We must make it. Yeah. It must be made. There’s no other way. You know?
Interviewer: [mid-credit lines, real footage] Are you a rich man?
Bob Marley: Possession make you rich? I don’t have that type of riches. My riches is life, forever.
Bob Marley: [real footage] Yeah, me see myself as a revolutionary.