8 Mile
Encyclopedia : 8 : 8M : 8MI : 8 Mile
- For other uses, see 8 Mile (disambiguation)}}}.
Besides Mathers, the stars of the movie include Kim Basinger, Brittany Murphy, Mekhi Phifer, Omar Benson Miller, Eugene Byrd, Michael Shannon, Evan Jones, Chloe Greenfield, Taryn Manning and De'Angelo Wilson.
Plot outline
The story of the film is about a young, poor white rapper living in a Warren, Michigan trailer park, who is a prodigy of freestyle rap. The movie starts out with Eminem's character ("B. Rabbit"), at a locally, and less professionally, organized music event similar to the Rap Olympics. He chokes on his first performance (doesn't say a word) and loses the competition.
Rabbit's best friend "Future" is the MC of this event and is played by Mekhi Phifer.
After the initial scene at the music event, the movie focuses on the life of B. Rabbit, a young sheet metal factory worker named Jimmy Smith, Jr., who is struggling with many different aspects of his life: Getting a possible music career started, ending a relationship with one girlfriend (Janeane, played by Taryn Manning), starting a relationship with another (Alex, played by Brittany Murphy), and the constant danger that exists as a result of the people he hangs around with. He lives at the rundown 8 Mile Road trailer park home of his alcoholic mother Stephanie (Played by Kim Basinger), his much-younger sister Lily (Chloe Greenfield), and his mother's abusive live-in boyfriend Greg (Michael Shannon). Over the course of the next few days, Rabbit begins to realize that his life is spinning out of control and the only way he can get it back into control is to lose himself in the music he practices rapping to over and over again.
The final, climactic scene of the movie takes place a week later at a freestyle competition similar to the one in the movie's opening scenes. At this point, Rabbit has been hyped up by his friends as a really good rapper, but until this point we are only shown snippets of his skills.
Rabbit wins the opening round, and viewers see three progressively more impressive freestyle raps by Rabbit. In the lyrics of his last round he ultimately acknowledges with pride his 'white trash'-roots and compares it with the relatively privileged background of his antagonist (His antagonist's real name is Clarence, he went to a private school, Cranbrook, and he lives with his parents, who have a successful marriage) which is usually very unfit in a hardcore environment like the 313, where you're supposed to be someone from "the streets". He calls him a "half-way" crook in the process. Not being this, this leaves his opponent speechless and Rabbit clinches the title. This scene ultimately summarizes the hardships both Rabbit and the real-life Eminem has to go through. It is considered to be one of Eminem's best rapping performances, even though it is part of a movie, and not an official song.
As a sign of his growing maturity throughout the film, he humbly resists the pleas of his friends to go out and celebrate his victory, instead quietly walking off into the night to return to his shift at the sheet metal factory.
Tagline: Every Moment is a Chance to Turn it Around.
Debate about biographical nature
There has been considerable debate, in the mainstream press, amongst reviewers, and other viewers, on the extent to which 8 Mile is semi-autobiographical, biographical, or totally fictional. This has been fueled by the fact that events and characters depicted in the movie appear to parallel events, and people, in Mathers' own life (as presented in the media and in various songs).
Some have suggested the character Jimmy Smith mirrors Mathers as a young adult, with an alter ego of "Bunny Rabbit"/"B-Rabbit"/"Rabbit" mirroring Mathers' own "Eminem"/"Slim Shady"-alter ego, although Eminem has never made any allusion to this in the bonus feature portions of the 8 Mile DVD.
Other suggested parallels include but are not limited to:
- Rabbit's 3-1-3 (Three-One-Three) posse to D12's rap group, of which Eminem is a member.
- Rabbit's friend, mentor, and promoter Future to Dr. Dre, Eminem's real life friend, producer, and mentor. Although Eminem did not meet Dr.Dre until a stage of his life after which 8 Mile is set.
- Rabbit's friend, mentor, and promoter Future to Kon Artis (real name Denaun Porter), Eminem's friend and fellow D12 rapper. Future's real name in the movie is "David Porter"; the sharing of the surname between Future and Kon Artis is unlikely to be a simple coincidence.
- Rabbit's friend and contest MC Future to D-12 member Proof, who was Eminem's childhood friend and a frequent emcee in Detroit (Proof actually appears in the movie as the first person B-Rabbit is supposed to battle at the beginning called Lil Tick. Future responds to his good but annoying rap by calling him Lil Bitch "accidentally")
- Rabbit's little sister Lilly to Eminem's young daughter Hailie Jade Scott, noting they even sound similar. Eminem's "Lose yourself" video explicitly connects 8 Mile's Lilly to Eminem's daughter. Lilly could also be similar to Eminem's half brother.
- Rabbit's mother to Eminem's real-life mother, Debbie.
- Rabbit's ex-girlfriend in 8 Mile to his real-life divorced, re-married and recently divorced again wife, Kim Mathers.
- Rabbit's rap battles in "The Shelter" to Eminem's participation in "The Rap Olympics".
The suggestion amongst those holding such a view is that identities and events were changed in the film, and thus should be considered "biographical", or "semi-autobiographical" (given Mathers' role in the creative process). Some people holding such views have suggested changes of names and events were done to make civil lawsuits against Eminem more difficult. Others have suggested that names were changed along with a fictionalized, sanitized account of real events, designed to legitimize Eminem as an artist, and present him in a positive light.
In contrast, Eminem, on numerous occasions, has stated that 8 Mile is a fictional story. However, he has admitted that he did indeed have a role in the creative process, and that places and events were indeed based on real events in his life. However, how far this role extended is still being debated.
Statistics
- Production Budget $41,000,000
- Prints and Advertising Budget $25,000,000
- Worldwide Gross: $215,300,000 (US Gross: $116,700,000)
- US home video revenue: $130,000,000
Soundtracks
The movie spawned two soundtracks
- Music From And Inspired By The Motion Picture 8 Mile featured several new songs by Eminem, along with collaborators 50 Cent and Obie Trice.
- More Music From 8 Mile featured songs referred to in the movie. These songs are all Hip-Hop tracks from 1995 and earlier, as per the setting of the movie. Some artists on the soundtrack include Mobb Deep, Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang Clan and The Pharcyde. It doesn't, however, feature all of the songs from the film, as songs by Onyx, Cypress Hill and Montell Jordan amongst others are absent.
Trivia
- The movie featured 200 usages of the word "fuck", according to the Wikipedia article List of films ordered by uses of the word "fuck"
See also
- Eight Mile Road, also known as M-102
External links
- [Official website]
- [HipHop-Battles.com] An Internet platform for audio MC Battle Raps
- [Tiscali]
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