Film: Bob Marley: One Love

Everyone talks about where they were when they heard about John Lennon being shot. I have no idea. I do know I was standing by my usual spot hogging the radiator near the 5th form entrance when I heard Bob Marley had passed away. Even as a teenager, to go before you were 40 seemed heartbreakingly young.

The story of Chris Blackwell (who formed Island Records) championing and developing Bob Marley’s career is well known. And that’s not what One Love is about. Instead, it focuses on a particular episode that I am less familiar with, around a free concert to promote peace during Jamaica’s troubled political times in 1976.

I loved that the whole crew went on a run together. Marley’s ethos (based on the Rastafarian religion) is about being healthy of mind and body. I've since looked up it could also mean no alcohol, meat and just eating natural foods.

The back story is told in flashbacks and One Love unfolds what happened after Bob and Rita Marley are shot and subsequently left Jamaica. Rita is sent to America and Bob to London to write and record the next album. That would become the iconic Exodus.

I would have liked this to be a biopic, but maybe that’s already been done. I came out of the Odeon feeling I could still smell the smoke, as there isn’t a scene when someone isn’t smoking.

It was a guarantee that I would love the soundtrack. Only reggae can make something positive out of every bad thing (ting).

8/10