Celebrate the life and music of an icon who inspired generations through his message of love, peace, and unity. In One Love, discover Bob Marley’s powerful story of overcoming adversity and the journey behind his revolutionary music that changed the world.

For in-depth thoughts on Bob Marley: One Love, please see my colleague M.N. Miller’s review from its original theatrical release here.

Video Quality

The 4K UHD Blu-Ray of Bob Marley: One Love offers a stunning level of quality that allows the film to look its best. It appears that the standard 4K UHD Blu-Ray release may not come with a Blu-Ray of the feature film, but the SteelBook variant does if that is important to you. The period production design and costumes reveal an intricate layer of texture and detail that the Blu-Ray format cannot quite eke out. The film does a nice job of transporting you to this time with its impressive craftwork. Skin tones are natural with crisp detail apparent on faces such as pores, perspiration, and facial hair. This might not be a film you automatically think of when you imagine gorgeous imagery, but there are plenty of shots that will leave you with an appreciation for the format.

The Dolby Vision/HDR enriches the sumptuous palette considerably in terms of nuance and vibrancy. Elements in the film taking place at night or in shadows are impressive and finely delineated. Black levels allow for fine detail while staying deep and inky. Objects retain their distinct edges even in the most soft lighting. Highlights are faithfully defined with whites pure and balanced and no instances of blooming are found. The 4K UHD avoids compression artifacts, banding, and other digital nuisances. This 4K UHD presentation shows its worth on all fronts including robust showings in clarity and color. Paramount has delivered a standout disc.

Audio Quality

This disc comes equipped with a formidable Dolby Atmos presentation which handles this material with the level of care you would want from a movie tackling a legendary musical artist. From the beginning, the soundscape comes alive with a three-dimensional immersion of sound. The environmental flourishes combined with the music provide a complex sound design that flows through all the speakers. It is not simply about the multitude of competing elements concurrently, though. Precision is key, and this track is a grand example of sound design that is executed flawlessly.

The addition of the height channels in the Atmos mix allows the film to be even more all-encompassing with key elements devoted to those channels. Ambient details are plentiful and satisfying in the rear channels. The low end digs deep when it needs to and adds appreciable texture during the quiet moments. Dialogue is presented perfectly clearly without ever being overpowered by any of the competing sonic elements. The lovely score from Kris Bowers envelopes the room along with classic tunes that showcase Marley. There does not appear to be room for improvement here. There are a wide array of optional subtitles provided.

Special Features

This release comes with an optional sleek new SteelBook that is quite fetching in person. The black glossy SteelBook features front artwork with Marley bathed in red, yellow, and green in the middle of playing guitar, and the rear features a quote. The interior sports a still photo of Marley raising a fist in the air. Photos of the SteelBook can be found at the bottom of this review.

Becoming Bob Marley: A nearly eight-minute featurette in which the cast and creative team discuss the process of authentically bringing Bob Marley to the screen, channeling his essence, the preparations taken by Kingsley Ben-Adir, the physical transformation, learning to sing and speak like Bob, and more.

The Story – Bringing Bob Marley’s Story To Life: A nearly eight-minute piece with the same participants who discuss wanting to avoid making a traditional biopic, working with the Marley family, the structure of the film, and more.

The Cast: A ten-minute look at the process of casting these pivotal roles, what the performers brought to the film, the chemistry between the performers, and more.

On Location – Jamaica and England: A nearly nine-minute exploration of the real-life locations and how they informed the experiences in the film.

The Band: A ten-minute piece that explores the process of bringing this incredible music to life, the musicians brought on board the project, and more.

Deleted and Extended Scenes: Eight scenes of unused material totaling nearly 11 minutes are provided that give brief looks at some decent scenes that were cut for pacing reasons.

Final Thoughts

Bob Marley: One Love is emblematic of what biopics have become in the last decade. The film is not bad, it is mostly just kind of dull as very talented performers do their best to bring these real-life figures to life. The film hints at many different thematic strands that could help you get more to the heart of the titular man, but most of them are abandoned before they can fully be explored. The film is mercifully short in comparison to other such films, but the brevity comes at the expense of substance. Superhero fatigue has been a buzzy phrase in recent years, but biopic fatigue should also be thoroughly in the conversation. There are too many stories being told without any spark of creativity, and it is getting exhausting. Paramount Home Entertainment has released a 4K UHD Blu-Ray with a fantastic A/V presentation and a few brief supplemental features. The optional limited edition SteelBook looks really great in person.

Bob Marley: One Love will be available to purchase on 4K UHD Blu-Ray (SteelBook or Standard), Blu-Ray and DVD on May 28, 2024. The film is currently available on Digital.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the 4K UHD Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Paramount Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.