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Bob Marley: One Love is a 2024 American biographical musical drama film directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, who co-wrote the screenplay with Terence Winter, Frank E. Flowers, and Zach Baylin. It is based on the life of reggae singer and songwriter Bob Marley, from his rise to fame in the mid-1970s up until his death in 1981. The film stars Kingsley Ben-Adir as Marley, alongside Lashana Lynch as Rita Marley, and James Norton as Chris Blackwell.
Bob Marley: One Love premiered at the Carib 5 in Kingston, Jamaica on January 23, 2024, and was released in the United States by Paramount Pictures on February 14, 2024. It received mixed reviews from critics and has grossed $80 million.
Plot[edit]
In 1976, amidst political conflict that is affecting daily life in Jamaica, Bob Marley announces he will perform at a concert promoting peace amongst the warring factions. While preparing for the concert, Marley, his wife Rita, and several other members of his band are shot by assailants. Rita and Marley are hospitalized, but survive and recover from their injuries in time for the concert. After performing, Marley, saddened that his own countrymen would try to kill him and his wife, shows the crowd his bullet wounds before walking off stage. He tells Rita to take their children to the United States as he and the rest of his band venture to London.
After struggling to come up with a new album concept, Marley asks Rita to rejoin him and the band in England, and taking inspiration from the soundtrack of the film Exodus and their own situation, he and the band begin recording what would become their album of the same name. The album becomes a hit and helps further popularize reggae music and the Rastafari movement around the world. When the recording company schedules a tour in Europe, Marley also aims for stops throughout Africa to inspire the people there. This leads to friction with Rita as she and Marley argue about his responsibilities as a husband and father, in addition to having given up on promoting peace back in Jamaica. Marley also gets into an altercation with manager Don Taylor over a financial dispute.
After a toenail infection raises concern from Rita and his record producer Chris Blackwell, Marley is later diagnosed with a rare skin cancer. Faced with his own mortality, Marley reconciles with Rita and Taylor and finally decides to return to Jamaica in 1978, where he is welcomed back by a crowd at the airport. Back home, the gunman who had shot him and the others arrives and begs for forgiveness, to which Marley states he "keeps no vengeance". After Marley debuts a song to Rita and the children about reconciliation, she finally deems him ready to perform a peace concert. The film ends as Marley and his band gear up to perform again for the Jamaican crowd with the song "One Love". A pre-credit montage shows clips of the real Marley and his band during the performance, which sees them joined on-stage by the heads of both of Jamaica's political parties, also revealing that Marley and his band were able to perform in Zimbabwe to celebrate the nation's independence before he died of his cancer in 1981.