The film “Bob Marley: One Love” came out on Feb. 14th and it did not disappoint. “Bob Marley: One Love” is a movie based on the Jamaican reggae singer, guitarist, and songwriter, known as no other than Bob Marley. The movie focuses on Marley’s music career and his successful mission to unite Jamaica. In the movie, Jamaica is in a terrible state. Violence is at an all time high and the two feuding political parties are destroying the country. The opening scene of the movie does an amazing job displaying the depth of the violence in Jamaica throughout the late 1970’s. In the opening scene, Marley is at a park with his sons and a car drives by shooting at them. The shooting occurred for no reason other than to provoke violence. On the way home, Marley calms the children down by singing to them. Shortly after that incident, another shooting takes place. This shooting was directly targeted towards Marley and his friends and family, it was so directed that it took place in their own home. Marley was shot in the arm and his wife, Rita Marley, was brutally shot in the head. The bullet shot into her head and had almost hit her brain. This crime terrified the couple so much that Marley thought about canceling his peace conference. Marley was planning on having a free concert to try and unite the island. He decides to go through with the show but halfway through the performance he was freaked out and stopped. Then, he begged his wife to go to America and take the kids with her. He did not think Jamaica was even a remotely safe place for them to be any more. His wife did just that and soon enough, Marley was in London. In London, Marley keeps writing music and begins to perform all over the world and he is praying that he can go back to Jamaica soon. His wife comes to visit and perform multiple times while he is in London. The part of the movie focuses on the marital struggles Marley and his wife had during this stage of their lives. They end up fighting through it and supporting each other through it all. While in London, Marley is extremely worried about the violence in Jamaica. He gets horrible, life altering news and makes the tough decision to go back to Jamaica. This news pushed him to finally perform his peace conference in hopes to unite Jamaica. When he stepped foot off the plane people were lined up to see him and cheer for him, I think this shows how much of an impact Marley had on the country. The man who had shot Marley and his wife even came back asking for forgiveness, and Marley forgave him. In the credits, we learn that Marley brought the two opposing politicians on stage and had the two men shake hands to show unity. This movie left me wanting to learn more about Bob Marley’s story and his quest to unite people.

Rating: Five Stars