On December 3, 1976, seven armed men entered the home of reggae musician Bob Marley in Kingston, Jamaica, and shot four people, including Bob Marley and his wife, Rita Marley. None of the four died, despite serious injuries. This film, directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard and Top Boy), depicts that moment. It's obviously a significant event in Marley's life. Yet, this film brushes past it rather quickly and doesn't really examine or explore that moment in any kind of satisfying way.
There might not be a satisfying way because the crime was unsolved. There are reports of who one or two of the gunmen were. There was also speculation as to whom was behind it and why, but it seems to be nothing but speculation. A lot of that speculation revolved around the politics and specifically the political election that year. Marley was reported to be neutral in regards to that election. Yet, his music did have political commentary on things that were happening both domestically and abroad, commentary on the CIA for example and echoes of Marcus Garvey. His music and he had much to say about his neighborhood of Trench Town. This film includes some archival or news footage, providing some brief context, but otherwise this film is dryly apolitical and touches upon none of that stuff.
Kingsley Ben-Adir (Barbie and One Night in Miami) stars as Bob Marley, the reggae musician, singer and guitarist from Jamaica. He was a Rastafarian, which was his religious faith. The film focuses on his career following the shooting, the time that he created his album Exodus (1977), but there are flashbacks to his youth. Yet, none of it reveals much about Marley's process or how he truly crafts his music. We don't get much reflection on the fact that he made this album not in Jamaica but in England. There really isn't much insight into his creative style. We don't get much about how he even formed his band. We also barely get anything about his personal life or his family life.
Lashana Lynch (The Woman King and No Time to Die) co-stars as Rita Marley, the aforementioned wife and mother to some of Bob's children. We see that she was one of the backup singers in his band when he was on tour. Yet, in terms of her and her music, this film gives us nothing that paints a fuller picture of her. There is one scene in which she and Bob have an argument. That argument brings up issues that the film hadn't explored or even hinted till this point. Those issues include infidelity where both Bob and Rita apparently cheated and both had children with other people. Why those affairs happened or what the actual context was is absolutely absent here.
At several points, the film keeps going back to this image of Bob Marley as a little boy standing in front of a corn field that's on fire with a man on a horse in silhouette. It's supposed to be a reference to Bob's father who was a white man that he didn't really know, but, aside from a tossed-off line, there's no real significance to what this burning image means. At another point, Bob fights Don Taylor, played by Anthony Welsh (Master of None and Hanna). There's barely any setup for that. Michael Ward (Blue Story and Top Boy) has a small role as the guy who shoots Bob Marley. This film has this gunman return but gives him nothing substantive either. I'm not even sure why the latter scene with Ward was even there. Ostensibly, it's about forgiveness. Yet, we get no kind of understanding of why the gunmen did what he did or what he was thinking or what it meant to him, so forgiveness without any of that understanding is practically pointless.
Rated PG-13 for marijuana use, some violence and some language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 47 mins.
In theaters.
