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8 Mile (film)

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8 Mile
Theatrical release poster
Directed byCurtis Hanson
Written byScott Silver
Produced byCurtis Hanson
Brian Grazer
Jimmy Iovine
StarringEminem
Kim Basinger
Mekhi Phifer
Brittany Murphy
CinematographyRodrigo Prieto
Edited byJay Rabinowitz
Music by50 Cent
Jeff Bass
Proof
Obie Trice
Xzibit
Eminem
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
and Imagine Entertainment
Release dates
November 8, 2002
Running time
110 min.
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$41,000,000
Box office$242,818,963

8 Mile is a 2002 American drama film, directed by Curtis Hanson and starring Eminem, Kim Basinger, Brittany Murphy, and Mekhi Phifer. Set in the Detroit hip hop scene in 1995, the film depicts white rapper Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith Jr. (Eminem) as he struggles for respect among his black peers. The film won an Academy Award for the Best Original Song for Eminem's "Lose Yourself." On November 18, 2008, Universal Studios Home Entertainment will release 8 Mile on Blu-ray. It will contain bonus materials and extra features.[1]

Title

Eight Mile Road is a road which forms the boundary between predominantly African American Detroit and the city's mostly white northern suburbs. The term 8 Mile, therefore, represents an important cultural barrier to be crossed.

Plot

The film begins with Eminem's character Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith, Jr. at a local rap battle MCd by Smith's friend David "Future" Porter. A nervous Rabbit chokes at the mic and exits the competition.

After the initial scene at the music event, the movie focuses on Jimmy, a young sheet metal factory worker who is struggling with different aspects of his life. He has moved back north of 8 Mile to the rundown trailer home in Warren of his alcoholic mother Stephanie (Kim Basinger), his much-younger sister Lily (Chloe Greenfield), and his mother's abusive live-in boyfriend Greg (Michael Shannon). Jimmy is focused on getting his music career started, but he seems unable to catch a break. Just prior to the events of the film, he ends a relationship with his girlfriend Janeane (Taryn Manning), and during the film, begins a new relationship with Alex (Brittany Murphy).

As the film progresses, Jimmy comes to realise that his life has remained largely the same since high school. At first, he considers himself a victim of his circumstances and blames others for his problems. Over time, though, Jimmy begins to take responsibility for the direction of his life and realizes that he has a large degree of control over how it will go. He begins to question whether his group of friends, including Future, are holding themselves back from moving on to bigger things. "All we ever do is talk shit," he tells them, as they bicker about the best way to become successful in the music business. With his onstage choke still fresh in his mind, he appears to decide that he will give up on or postpone his dream of a music career in favor of devoting more time to his day job and building a home life. Jimmy's newfound responsibility becomes evident to his supervisor at the factory as well. At the beginning of the film, when Jimmy requests extra shifts, his supervisor laughs at him, but by the end, Jimmy's improved attitude and performance earn him the extra work he had wanted. However, a late night shift conflicts with the next battle tournament. Jimmy initially doesn't want to go, but a visit from Alex changes his mind. Paul, a co-worker whom Jimmy stood up for earlier in the film, offers to cover for him.

The climax of the movie takes place at the battle. Rabbit's friends hype him throughout the film as an incredible rapper, but until this point the film only shows snippets of his skills. The tournament has three rounds, and in each of them Rabbit faces a member of the "Leaders of the Free World", a group that feuds with Rabbit and his friends throughout the film. Rabbit wins both of the first two rounds with progressively more impressive freestyle raps. In the last round, he is paired against Papa Doc, the tournament's most feared battler and Jimmy's main antagonist throughout the storyline. Rabbit is aware that Doc knows all his weak points, so he decides to address them preemptively with his freestyle. Rabbit acknowledges without shame his white trash roots and the various humiliations the Free World clique have inflicted on him. He then uses the difficult life he's had as a springboard to reveal the truth about Papa Doc: despite passing himself off as a thug, he has a privileged background. Doc, whose real name is Clarence, attended Cranbrook, a private school located in upper class Bloomfield Hills. Rabbit makes a reference to "Shook Ones Pt. II", the beat that the DJ is spinning, by calling Papa Doc a "halfway crook", which sends the crowd into a frenzy. Doc is left with nothing to say in rebuttal, drops the mic, and Rabbit takes the title.

As a final sign of his growing maturity throughout the film, Jimmy resists the pleas of his friends to go out and celebrate his victory, and instead he quietly walks off into the night to return to his shift at the sheet metal factory. As he walks off into the distance back to work, Eminem's award winning song "Lose Yourself" plays in the background as the transition to the ending credits.

Cast

Details

  • The paintball drive-by scene may be a reference to the real paintball drive-by shootings rappers Eazy-E and Dr. Dre took part in. Dr. Dre is a close friend and associate of Eminem. This is also semi-autobiographical because Eminem's first run-in with the police was for shooting a police car with a paintball gun.
  • When Rabbit comes home after Cheddar Bob shoots himself, his mother is watching the movie Imitation of Life, a 1959 film about a poor single mother who dreams of becoming rich and famous, but loses the connection with her child in the process.
  • On June 29 2007 a leaked video clip on YouTube showed many more rap battles that had been filmed for the movie. The clip is no longer available due to a copyright claim by NBC Universal, though additional battles were featured as an extra on the DVD edition.
  • The movie featured 200 usages of the word "fuck," according to the Family Media Guide (see: List of films ordered by uses of the word "fuck").
  • In the beginning of the movie when Rabbit is in the bathroom, the beat from Mobb Deep's "Shook Ones Pt. II" is played, as the song was made in 1995 and the film is set in 1995. It is also the beat used in the final rap battle between Rabbit and Papa Doc.
  • When Eminem battles Lyckety-Split before he battles Lotto, the beat is from the Show & AG song "Next Level (Nyte Time Mix)" from the album Goodfellas.
  • When Eminem battles Lotto at the end of the film, the beat is from the Onyx song "Last Dayz."
  • Sara from MTV's popular series Making The Band has a cameo towards the end of the movie. She can be seen in the background during the last rap battle in the movie as Rabbit and Papa Doc compete.
  • After Rabbit and Lyckety-Split battle, Future says "Next up, we got Ox and Strike..." This is an inside joke because the actor portraying Lyckety-Split has "Strike" as his stage name because he is a rapper in real life. The character playing Lotto has the real-life stage name of "Ox".
  • A reference is made to popular 1950s show Leave it to Beaver during Rabbit's battle with Lotto. Lotto refers to Rabbit as 'that dude from Leave it to Beaver'. Rabbit responds to this by calling Lotto 'Ward' and the other members of the 'Free World' as 'Eddie Haskell, Wally and Miss Cleaver' as they were all characters on the show.
  • In the battle with Lil' Tic (played by Proof) Lil' Tic Spells out Proof in his verse: "L.T. , thats right, cop the heat I'll shoot ya/ I'll Punish Rabbit Or Obsolete Future (PROOF)/"
  • The parking garage where Jimmy and his friends fight with members of the Free World is the Michigan Theater.

Reception

8 Mile was generally well received among critics. The film currently holds a 75% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Ebert and Roeper gave the film a "two thumbs up" rating. The film was a surprise hit at the box office making $51.2 million in its opening weekend, making it one of the biggest opening weekends for an R-rated movie. The total domestic gross is $116 million USD. The 8 Mile DVD released in March 2003 grossed $91 million USD in DVD sales.

Soundtrack

Main article: 8 Mile (soundtrack)

The soundtrack was released October 29, 2002.

Awards

Academy Awards

Parodies

  • Eminem himself parodies the movie in the single and video for "Just Lose It".
  • Scary Movie 3 parodied the rap battle scenes, but instead of the character "choking" he starts rapping, and impresses the crowd, but he then brings up his Ku Klux Klan-like hood, and even gives a Hitler salute.
  • The movie is also parodied in The Simpsons in the episode "Pranksta Rap" when Bart is writing things on a sheet of paper.
  • For "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody of "Lose Yourself," entitled "Couch Potato," there was a t-shirt made to promote Al's Poodle Hat album. The shirt had a parody of the 8 Mile poster, depicting Al holding a small TV monitor, with rabbit-ear antennas on top, in his hands. The shirt can be found at the online shop at his website.
  • South Park's Eric Cartman makes reference to the movie while writing in his own hand in a bus in the episode "Christian Rock Hard."

References

  1. ^ http://dvd.ign.com/articles/916/916962p1.html

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