"POWERFUL. THIS MAY BE ONE OF THE FEW INSPIRATIONAL MOVIES THAT COULD ACTUALLY INSPIRE SOMEONE."
-Richard Schickel, TIME
Just happened to take this off the shelf the other evening with the little lady because we were "in the mood" and I hadn't seen it in awhile; it's one of those pictures that's simply nice to revisit from time to time -- but not overdo it, if you know what I mean, because it's far from a brilliant piece of cinema, depending on how you specifically define that word. I have to admit right now: seeing this initially and theatrically I was not impressed. I was not what you would call an Eminem fan, and so I went into it simply to please my friend who wanted to so desperately see it at the time. But for some reason -- as happens quite often if you consider enough titles -- the more I was exposed to the picture via cable broadcasts, the more it grew on me to the point I found enough love for it to warrant a DVD purchase. Universal's inclusion of a DTS track was a secret selling point for me as well, considering the Hip Hop soundtrack that accompanied the visuals.
What works so well here I think is the reality Eminem brings to the screen and to his role -- he is playing himself, in reality, as this is a look at where he came from, his humble beginnings in a Detroit trailer park and his participation as a Caucasian "rap" artist in a predominantly African American community. While a lot of what happens up on that screen was most likely tinkered with for Hollywood purposes, from what I understand, this was an almost spot-on mockup of his beginnings in the rap music game -- when he was just doing "battles" and hunting desperately for a record contract. The film doesn’t delve into the post-success he experienced once landing such a contract, but it really wasn’t meant to I think. The idea here was to see where he came from and what the struggles were that he had to endure -- in a quite amplified, magnified fashion. I believe Curtis Hanson brought the environment of the gritty, poor Detroit streets of these times to vivid life in the picture as we all get a feeling watching 8 Mile that we would all sure love to be somewhere else -- and suddenly our lives don't seem so bad any longer.
Eminem plays Jimmy Smith Junior (nicknamed "Bunny Rabbit" or "B Rabbit" by his friends), a parody of himself growing up in a rough underclass trailer park neighborhood surrounding an area of Detroit, Michigan known as "8 Mile." The film opens with a blaring Hip Hop soundtrack as we find "B Rabbit" in the grimy bathroom of a place called "The Shelter" -- a gathering hole for young African American males and females to meet and witness "rap battles" by which two aspiring "rappers" get onstage and are given a limited amount of time to "freestyle" rhyme, the point being to pretty much insult each other until the crowd picks a winner. This was actually based on real events that took place during Eminem's "starter days," and which still goes on today in certain neighborhoods of America. There is bonus material on the disc that explores this quite thoroughly for those interested, and where Hanson got his inspiration.
At any rate, B Rabbit is the only white "rap battler" to have the nerve to step on stage with these seasoned rap battle veterans, and the opening scene of the film with him in the bathroom "practicing" for his battle he is scheduled for next is very reminiscent of a boxer preparing for a big match -- almost like a Rocky-meets-the-ghetto-rap-battle scenario. But that's the way it was in this environment Eminem grew up part of. After vomiting on his own sweatshirt out of fear and nerves, he finally gets the head together to go inside and face his rap battle nemesis, with the aid of his friend who "hosts" these "battles" at The Shelter (Mekhi Phifer). His *** pretty much gets handed to him, as once he is given the microphone to "do his thing" in response to his adversary, he freezes up and cant mutter a word, immediately labeling him a "choke artist" by the crowd and is ultimately booed offstage.
The remainder of the film deals with Jimmy attempting to regain his "rap abilities" and strengths in spite of his own self doubt, almost in Rocky-like fashion, but the picture splinters into may subplots. We meet Jimmy's trailer park home mate mother (Kim Bassinger) who is screwing a lowlife physical abuser who actually went to the same school as Jimmy, and learn of their struggles living in these conditions. It’s a place none of us want to be. In the meantime, Jimmy's friend "Future" (Phifer) continues to press Jimmy into battling again at The Shelter because he believes in his abilities. The other friends he hangs around with in their "crew" includes one individual who continues promising Jimmy a record deal of some kind due to some connections he has, but it never comes through. We then get a glimpse into Jimmy's harsh reality when he goes to a dismal job at the Detroit Stamping Company each day pressing automobile bumpers. His boss makes life rough on him, as if the grind of the job isn’t tough enough, and to make matters worse, his ex girlfriend has entered the picture telling him she is pregnant. Giving her his car because he believes this to be true, Jimmy is left with no mode of transportation except the public bus and is still living at home with Bassinger in the trailer park. Bassinger, for Jimmy's birthday, ends up giving him the keys to her car as a present -- the problem is, the car is an Olds 88 Delta that's just about on its last leg and won't even start half the time.
Then along comes Brittany Murphy (in a rather skanky-looking appearance/role), a trashy-looking, fishnet-wearing Caucasian chick who shows up one day at Jimmy's factory job looking for her brother who supposedly works there. Of course, a "relationship" develops here, where after eyeballing her at clubs around town, Jimmy takes a liking to her now that he's broken up with his chick -- and she takes a liking to Jimmy. But there's a catch here. It seems the same friend that has been "promising" Jimmy a record contract has also been "promising" Murphy an opportunity for her to do a photo shoot for a book so she can move on to the likes of New York and get noticed. Jimmy finds out the hard way that this "friend" has been really banging Murphy behind his back, after he himself has had sex with her in public places no less, and in one pretty wild scene, Jimmy breaks into the radio station studio where he was "promised" a meeting between him and some executive who was interested in his rhymes according to this friend of his only to find him banging Murphy on the console of the studio desk. He breaks in the studio and beats the **** out of this "friend" to the screaming dismay of a half-naked Murphy. But he soon finds out that it was a mistake to do that because this now ex-friend becomes a member of a rival rap battle "crew" known as "Leaders of the Free World" who have a hatred for Jimmy as it is. They show up at his trailer park home one night and beat him to a pulp in retaliation, but it doesn’t seem to faze Jimmy. In fact, it makes his determination to win the battle between him and their crew members which is inevitably coming even more fueled.
