Assistimos ao novo filme "Bob Marley: One Love" e aqui está nossa opinião!

Desde o início da vida de Marley nas plantações da Jamaica até a descoberta de uma nova vida na cultura e valores do Rastafari, o novo filme biográfico sobre a vida de Bob Marley é uma obrigação para todos os seus fãs e entusiastas do reggae em todo o mundo.

O filme nos mostra um novo lado não apenas da vida de Marley através da Jamaica e suas turnês mundiais, mas também um olhar sobre as vidas daqueles que o cercaram e o apoiaram ao longo de sua carreira musical e vida.

Será que Marley realmente serviu como um símbolo de esperança para o povo da Jamaica? Quais foram os eventos que o encorajaram a mudar suas músicas de hinos de paz para chamados revolucionários? Ele conseguiu realizar suas proclamações de paz e união? Continue lendo nossa resenha do filme para descobrir!

Nota: Antes de continuar rolando, por favor, tenha em mente que você pode encontrar alguns spoilers do filme.

Antes de começarmos, queremos enfatizar alguns pontos importantes e diferenças entre os conflitos reais entre Marley e o filme.

Infância de Marley e a Influência de Seu Pai em Sua Música

Cedella Booker e Norval Marley se conheceram em uma plantação na Jamaica e se casaram apenas por um curto período de tempo até se separarem depois que Robert Nesta (Bob) Marley nasceu. Aos 10 anos, seu pai faleceu, deixando Bob e sua mãe sozinhos em uma situação vulnerável. Isso é retratado no início do filme e, na realidade, ele não era tão próximo de seu pai, pois ele não ficou muito tempo para ver seu filho crescer.

Devido à ausência de seu pai, Bob teve dificuldades para ser aceito como criança devido à raça de seu pai. Em uma entrevista com Karl Dallas em 1975, Marley foi questionado sobre se suas músicas "tinham uma mensagem para pessoas brancas ou apenas para as negras", e sua resposta mergulhou em suas experiências de infância, revelando detalhes sobre sua criação e como elas moldaram sua perspectiva e música.

"Because my father's white, my mother's black. You know what they call me—half-caste or whatever. Well, me don't dip on nobody's side; me don't dip on the black man's side nor the white man's side; me dip on God's side, the man who created me, who caused me to come from black and white, who gave me this talent. Prejudice is a chain; it can hold you. If you're prejudiced, you can't move; you keep prejudice for years. Never get nowhere with that."

Tradução:
"Porque meu pai é branco, minha mãe é negra. Você sabe como me chamam — meio-casta ou algo assim. Bem, eu não me inclino para o lado de ninguém; eu não me inclino para o lado do homem negro nem para o lado do homem branco; eu me inclino para o lado de Deus, o homem que me criou, que fez com que eu viesse de negro e branco, que me deu esse talento. O preconceito é uma corrente; ele pode te prender. Se você é preconceituoso, não pode se mover; você mantém o preconceito por anos. Nunca chegará a lugar nenhum com isso."

Esta parte da vida de Marley foi perfeitamente executada no filme, já que é a sequência de abertura e o fio condutor para os eventos posteriores que se desenvolveram ao longo da história. Também podemos ouvir a primeira introdução da "Redemption Song" em uma leve canção de ninar refletindo os sentimentos de sua família na época.

A Noite em que Bob Marley foi Baleado e a Redenção do Seu Atirador

A violência política na Jamaica e a escalada para a guerra civil foram um dos muitos fatores que inspiraram Marley a realizar o concerto Smile Jamaica como um símbolo de paz e união em resposta à caótica violência que ocorreu antes das eleições de 1976 na Jamaica. Segundo The Medium, facções políticas rivais estavam em guerra nas ruas de Kingston, Jamaica, com apenas Bob Marley clamando pela paz.

Na noite de 3 de dezembro de 1976, apenas dois dias antes do concerto Smile Jamaica, sete homens armados invadiram a residência de Marley em Kingston, atirando em Marley no peito e no braço, assim como em sua esposa Rita na cabeça, enquanto ela estava estacionada na entrada. As outras duas pessoas afetadas foram seu empresário, Don Taylor, que foi baleado nas pernas e no torso, e o funcionário de sua banda, Louis Griffith, que levou um tiro no torso. Felizmente, não houve vítimas fatais neste ataque.

Mais tarde no filme, podemos ver que Marley encontrou seu atirador e o perdoou pelo que fez. Esta cena foi na verdade uma liberdade artística adicionada para refletir o crescimento pessoal do personagem de Bob ao longo do filme. Na vida real, ele nunca realmente encontrou seu atirador. Segundo a revista People, Marley disse em uma entrevista em vídeo não datada que, embora nunca tenha visto o atirador durante a tentativa de assassinato, ele estava familiarizado com a pessoa que tentou tirar sua vida.

Marley e os Wailers em Londres, e sua conexão com a cultura Rastafári

Durante o tempo que passou em Londres com os Wailers, o grupo foi preso em 10 de março de 1977, por posse de "ganja". No entanto, como mostrado no filme, isso foi amplamente exagerado pela mídia, já que os repórteres não entendiam ou tentavam investigar o que essa prática realmente significava para os Rastafáris.

Bob foi uma vez citado: “Quando você fuma erva, a erva se revela para você.” “Toda a maldade que você faz, a erva se revela para você, sua consciência, mostra-se clara para você, porque a erva faz você meditar. É apenas uma coisa natural e cresce como uma árvore.”

É importante lembrar que, para a cultura Rastafári, fumar é uma experiência especial para ajudar a iluminar a mente, para que possam raciocinar corretamente sobre os caminhos do mundo de maneira ritualística. Afinal, muitas das músicas de Bob Marley, como "Redemption Song", "One Love", "Exodus" e "Africa Unite", expressam suas fortes crenças na cultura, pois ele vê o Rastafarianismo não apenas como um sistema de crenças espirituais, mas também como um modo de vida e uma realidade vivida.

O tratamento de Bob para o câncer e sua resposta

Bob Marley regularly enjoyed playing soccer, so injuries from this were really common. In the movie, we see that he was diagnosed with melanoma because a wound he had on his toe was not healing. After hearing the news, Bob refused to get treatment for cancer.

In reality, he had his nail and nail bed removed where the acral melanoma was found, replacing his skin from his thighs. According to the AIM at the Melanoma Foundation, he did not undergo routine follow-up treatments, but at the time, there was not much treatment to be offered.

While chemotherapy was available at the time, it was not effective against this type of melanoma. Even after being treated at multiple clinics specializing in cancer, including the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, the treatment didn’t work, but he did receive radiation therapy in the hopes of shrinking tumors in his lungs and liver. His death was most likely attributed to the damage the metastasized cancer did to his vital organs—specifically his liver and lungs.

Seeking Peace Through Music

An undeniable truth in both the movie and real life is the message of peace, love, and redemption, and that is what Marley and The Wailers were fighting for. After his return to Jamaica on April 22,1978, Marley united numerous political groups as a symbol of unity at the “One Love Peace Concert," which attracted more than 32,000 spectators, with the proceeds of the show going towards "much-needed sanitary facilities and housing for the sufferers in West Kingston."

Is the movie worth it? Here are three points to consider:

What we loved:

In our opinion, the color palette of the movie portrayed in the first minutes, where Marley, Rita, and their kids play on the beach in Kingston, gives you the feeling of a loving family.

The movie colors adapt from warm to neutral to blue tones when tragedy strikes. You can feel that the warmest tones, like yellow, brown, green, and red, are used in Bob’s youth and come back when he is with his family in the final scene, as well as when he comes back home.

While in London, you can see more neutral tones that give us a sense of distance and coldness, in contrast to what we used to see at the beginning of the movie. This is a tool in color theory to represent a change in the tone and atmosphere of the movie, as well as the pacing, and is another type of language that we found interesting.

The audio production is another one of the distinguished thumbs up for this movie, and while the actor Kingsley Ben-Adir, who depicted Marley, did not actually sing for the movie, the lip-synching seemed so natural that it made us wonder where they got such a clean vocal track for the band rehearsal scenes.

In reality, and according to Screenrant, Ben-Adir actually learned how to sing and play the guitar. While shooting the performance sequences in the movie, the actor performed all the songs himself, using his real singing voice on set. The result was a combination of Ben-Adir's raw vocals and Marley's archived recordings. One example of his singing skills can be heard in the movie, with “Turn Your Lights Down Low," an acoustic version of the song to Rita after she surprises him in London.

Additionally, there were important moments where other artists played parts in the movie, such as Ziggy Marley in "Jamming," which has a cover of the song played in the movie, and then his father's version of the song is played in a scene where Bob plays soccer and during studio sessions. Listening to Ziggy Marley also brought us a lot of memories, since we had the chance several years ago to record him along with the PFC Band in one of our Live Outside performances.

Click here to watch the exclusive version of "Redemption Song" with Ziggy Marley and the PFC Band.

We were also surprised to learn that, in the beginning of the "Redemption Song," Angelique Kidjo hums a portion of the song, as we had the opportunity to record her for one of our famous Songs Around The World, "Biko.”

And last but not least, we cannot leave behind the emotional aspects of the movie in some scenes. For example, the movie’s climax takes place right after a big fight between Bob and Rita in London, followed by flashbacks of their youth, where they first fell in love. All of this was Bob’s thinking while performing “No Woman, No Cry” at a concert.

Did you know that the PFC Band played this song for the Playing for Change Foundation music program in Diamante, Argentina?

What we missed:

The “Trenchtown Rock” and “Tuff Gong”

In the movie, we can see a combination of time jumps; the young versions of Bob and Rita speak about his father and show us a little bit about their first encounters with the Rastafarian culture. However, we don’t get much background about his settlement in Trench Town, where he got along (but was not an active part) with the local street gangs known as “rude boys." We would’ve loved to see more about the struggles in this part of his life, but unfortunately, the movie shows us just a glimpse of what could’ve happened as it leaves it to interpretation.

A Tutor for the Youth in Kingston: The Influence of Joe Higgs

A singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Higgs was well known for opening his doors to anyone who wished to learn for free. They say that Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer were his most outstanding students. According to Grunge, he taught them the basics of singing and songwriting, but when Marley and The Wailers began to experience success, he refused to keep on playing with them, probably because of his strong beliefs, as he was actually a protest singer. However, he agreed to play with them in the late ‘70s on a tour in the U.S.

What we take:

Like any other biopic, one of the big challenges for creating a film that encapsulates the full life and trajectory of an artist is screen time. For example, Bohemian Rhapsody tells the story of Freddy Mercury and the formation of Queen in approximately 2 hours and 12 minutes. One Love has a total watch time of 1 hour and 47 seconds, leaving some aspects behind, like his struggles during his final days and how he lived with his family members (specifically his sons and daughters), as well as many additional details that a true Marley fan or any other person who is new to Bob Marley’s life would’ve found vital and interesting to engage fully in the story. Another example of this is the biographical film dedicated to the life of Bob Dylan, I’m Not There, which lacks a few details and takes a brief 2 hours and 15 minutes of watch time. We can also find a similar length with movies such as Rocketman, inspired by the life of Elton John, or Elvis with a length of 2 hours and 32 minutes.

While it is challenging to tell the full life story of a person in detail with only one movie, we would’ve loved to take a deeper look into Bob’s childhood and his youth while living in Trench Town, as well as a few more takes while being a father in Jamaica and how he spent his time learning how to play the guitar and write songs. Maybe a two-hour-long movie would’ve been really interesting to see, since, in our opinion, it would have made its way into the hearts of people who are not very familiar with Bob Marley’s past.

In conclusion, if you are a fan of Marley or you like biopic films, this one is a perfect start to his life, and even if it leaves you with a lot of questions, it encourages the audience to investigate and read more about his life. If you ask us, we loved the message it carried, specially one line by Rita Marley:

“Sometimes….. The messenger has to become the message.”

By following our mission inspired by Marley’s message of unity, peace, love, and forgiveness, we have managed to record numerous songs with the support of our followers, who make our work possible by lending us a hand in reaching out to faraway places full of extraordinary people with their own music histories. Our goal, to this day, is to connect the world through music, crossing barriers around the world in the hopes of bringing unity among the people. This is what we take from Bob Marley, and we hope that his speech inspires you to create your own way and find your own message to spread with the leading hand of hope and peace.

Listen to the original soundtrack here:

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