There’s a great Dave Thompson quote about how the cultural icon that Bob Marley became — you know, the joke about college dorm room walls, etc. — erased the man and obscured his great works. This is by no means limited to Marley, of course, as it happens to pretty much everyone who becomes famous enough to have their poster on a dorm room wall or, worse, a statue on the campus. Yet Marley doesn’t even have the sting of controversy that surrounds someone like Che Guevara: He, in Thompson’s words, is “smiling benevolence, a shining sun, a waving palm tree, and a string of hits which tumble out of polite radio like candy from a gumball machine.”
And this is one of the reasons that it’s taken so long for a movie like Bob Marley: One Love to be made: You have to reckon with the fact that most Americans don’t know jack shit about him and that they might not want that precious image of him disturbed. Like, for instance, how many people do you think know that “Baby Don’t Worry About a Thing” isn’t the title of the song?
Anyway, this trailer for Bob Marley: One Love looks… pretty solid, honestly; it’s a straight-up biopic, helmed by Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard, Monsters and Men) and stars Kingsley Ben-Adir (who you may remember as Malcolm X in One Night in Miami and on Peaky Blinders) as Marley and Lashana Lynch as his wife Rita.
Peep it:
Here’s a wonderfully vague synopsis, which doesn’t tell you that the movie’s about the recording of Exodus, as well as all of the crazy shit happening to and around Marley at that time:
“‘Bob Marley: One Love’ celebrates the life and music of an icon who inspired generations through his message of love and unity. On the big screen for the first time, discover Bob’s powerful story of overcoming adversity and the journey behind his revolutionary music.“
Bob Marley: One Love will hit theaters on January 12. Don’t let the dumb title and the date fool you — between Green, Ben-Adir, and Lynch, there’s more than enough here to make a fine biopic. And besides, what’s better than some cinematic warmth in the middle of winter?