Bob Marley: One Love | 2024 | PG-13 | – 2.5.5

Why is “Bob Marley: One Love” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “marijuana use and smoking throughout, some violence and brief strong language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes an implied sex scene, a few kissing scenes, a few flirting scenes, references to infidelity, gunfire in a few scenes that leave people injured with blood visible, a couple of fights with punching and kicking, discussions of political violence that divide Jamaica, many arguments, many scenes of people smoking marijuana in various settings, and at least 2 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

---

A look at the life of Bob Marley (Kingsley Ben-Adir) and his rise to popularity with a message of music, peace and unity. Also with Lashana Lynch, James Norton, Tosin Cole, Umi Myers, Anthony Welsh and Gawaine ‘J-Summa’ Campbell. Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green. [Running Time: 1:44]

Bob Marley: One Love SEX/NUDITY 2

 – A young man and a young woman kiss and lie back in bed (sex is implied).
► A husband and his wife hug. A teen boy and a teen girl flirt in several scenes and they hold hands while talking about their future; the teen girl says that she wants to be with someone that wants his life to have meaning.
► A few remarks suggest that a man and a woman are each having extramarital affairs. A woman says that she is raising a child that her husband fathered with another woman.
► Men are shown bathing in a waterfall and we see them shirtless with their bare chests, abdomens and backs visible. A man opens his shirt to reveal his partially bare chest.

Bob Marley: One Love VIOLENCE/GORE 5

 – A woman sees men with guns sneaking onto a compound and one security person is lying on the ground while a gunman holds a gun to the woman’s head; two gunmen get inside the building and shoot two men inside (we see blood splatter and bloody wounds on the victims) and the woman is shown leaning over the steering wheel of her car after having been shot in the head (they all survive).
► Men play soccer in a park and people in a car drive by and open fire on another car; children in the park shelter behind the men and no one is injured. A man with a gun chases another man out of a recording studio and yells at him; he then holds the gun on a group of musicians outside the studio, but invites them in to play. A man yells at another man, hits him hard in the face and kicks him while he is on the ground (we see blood on the man’s mouth and he spits some on the ground). A husband and his wife argue and he grabs her, she hits him hard in the face and they yell at each other before she walks away.
► London police officers grab people gathered in streets where fires are burning, slamming one man onto the hood of a car and taking three men into custody. A man performing on a stage imagines seeing a person in the crowd holding a gun and he becomes apprehensive about potential violence; he opens his shirt to show wounds from an earlier shooting at his home. An armed soldier stops a vehicle and begins to take the driver out but he is stopped and told to let him go (it is implied that he was stopped because he is Rasta). Two men approach another man in a park and ask for his help to unify the people of Jamaica. Many people crowd around a vehicle when a man arrives in Jamaica; they run alongside the car and are pulled away by security; one young boy is lifted into the car (he’s the man’s son). A woman leaves Jamaica and takes her children to the United States to keep them safe.
► A woman tells a man that someone burned down an orphanage in Jamaica. News reports describe violence in Jamaica and the nation being on the brink of civil war. A man and a woman talk about being worried about violence at an upcoming concert. Several people try to talk a man out of doing a concert, with concerns of violence; one man says that the performer is being accused of destabilizing the country. People practice a song with lyrics that include, “I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy,” and “Self-defense.” Two teenagers talk about their parents leaving them on their own when they were young. A man sings about a “puss and dog,” and that they can live together. Men discuss organizing a concert tour in Africa and one man says that it would be impossible because there is no infrastructure.
► A man has a flashback or dream numerous times that show him as a child as he runs out of burning brush followed by a man on a horse. People are shown living in squalor as gunfire erupts and flames burn vehicles in a few scenes. A man is knocked to the ground by another man while playing soccer and we later see the man’s toe badly discolored and swollen (we are later told that he has skin cancer). A man is told that he should have his toe removed to stop the spread of cancer. We are told that Bob Marley died at the age of 36 from cancer.

Bob Marley: One Love LANGUAGE 5

 – About 2 F-words, 1 mild obscenity, name-calling (crazy, thief, burden), exclamations (simmer down), 13 religious exclamations (e.g. oh God, there are many references to Rastafarianism and prayers to Jah, a man hands a young boy a Bible as he leaves with his mother, our God is Black). | profanity glossary |

Bob Marley: One Love SUBSTANCE USE

 – Many characters are shown smoking marijuana in many scenes in many settings (including while driving) throughout the movie, a ceremony is performed and men share a pipe of an “herb,” and a reporter asks a man if it is true that he smokes 1 pound of weed every day (he does not answer directly). A man drinks beer in a recording studio, a bottle of champagne is opened and flows out of the bottle, a woman says that she has been doing too much gallivanting, and people drink champagne and wine in a few party scenes.

Bob Marley: One Love DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Jamaica, revolution, unity, civil war, coincidence, politics, ambition, jealousy, redemption, struggle, burdens, a meaningful life, cancer, morality, war, Marcus Garvey, political violence, mental slavery, vengeance, warring gangs, Exodus.

Bob Marley: One Love MESSAGE

 – There is a purpose for everything. Love one another.