8 Mile

[EMINEM]

Anyone else seen it yet? I saw it last night and wanted to weigh in on it myself. For those not in the know, it's a film based on Eminem's life before his rise to fame and fortune. Many critics have praised it as a raw, gritty and authentic look at hip hop culture, its practitioners, and the environment from which they arose and flourished. Watching the movie, however, I wasn't reminded so much of Purple Rain, Rocky, or Saturday Night Fever - the three films which 8 Mile is most often compared to - but rather the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. Hamlet was thought to be semi-biographical as well - or should I say, autobiographical. Eminem is the 20th Cenury equivalent of the Shakespeare and his melancholy character Prince of Denmark.

No, don't laugh! I think the comparison is justified. Although their language couldn't be more different - Hamlet's words are eloquent and poetic, while Em's vernacular, especially when he raps is profane, obscene, and elementary, there is a rhythm to his ryhmes that elevates it to that of poetry. The creation process is similar - Em takes his lyrics from his immediate surroundings (crumbling section of Detroit) and pieces the words together to fit the beat of the music perennially thrumming in his headphones; Shakespeare meanwhile collected words from a rich, classical vocabulary and fashioned them together to fit the deca-syllabic structure of his iambic. In short, both artists put much thought to their words - neither one was sloppy or haphazard, since there's little room to maneuvor within the established forms of their dialogue. Students five centuries hence will have as much difficulty understanding the 8 Mile screenplay as students in 2002 have understanding Elizabethan english. Em also possessed the same melancholy attitude as Hamlet. "How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!" Felt like a prisoner in his own neighborhood; "There are many prisons in the world, Denmark being one of the worst." Could not relate to his promiscuous, irresponsible excuse for a mother, "Frailty, thy name is woman!" Believed he had the potential for a better life if only he could escape the confines of the social strata into which he was born - "Oh God! I am bounded in a nutshell and yet king of infinite space!" Felt like the world was dead set against his ambitions to lead a normal life, "How all occasions do inform against me, and spur my dull revenge!" And so on and so forth.


Em did a pretty good job in the acting department. The criticism; "How hard could it be, since he was only playing himself?" doesn't hold water, since it assumes that he was indeed playing himself (the gentle, soft-spoken, gay-friendly Jimmy Smith jr. bore little resemblance to the mysogonistic, homophobic, chainsaw-wielding, seal-puppy bashing Slim Shady), and it assumes we really know him, his true character. The point of the whole movie was that individuals cannot be so easily pigeon-holed by their past and place in the world, and that that your fate cannot necessarily be determined by where you come from if you work hard enough at it. The script, supporting cast, and Hanson's directoral expertise gave shape to a storyline that Eminem held together by sheer force of his charisma and simmering energy. He appears in 99% of the scenes, and you can't take your eyes off him. I think the movie will gross at least 150 million thanks to repeat ticket sales of hormone-charged teenage girls who will want to see their idol lay bare his flesh, have unprotected sex with Britney Murphy, and, oh yeah, triumph over the odds to win a rap contest.

Speaking of rap, many critics concur that the raps contests were the most electrifying parts of the movie, and the climactic battle between Em's character and a rival rap group's leader the high-watermark of contemporary hip-hop film-making. Indeed, the movie audience I was with were literally cheering on their feet at Em's excorciating yet humorous lyrics. A group of African-American teenagers seated in in front of me were hooting and hollering, yelling, "Oooo! 3rd degree! 3rd degree!" while shaking their hands vigorously as if boiling water were just poured into open palms. I'm not sure what this gesture means exactly, but I think it has something to do with getting severely "burned" or "dissed." Whatever, dawg. Anyway, Eminem's verbal dexterity, wit, courage, and talent, is revealed at last, and he finally finds the voice that has eluded him all his adult life. We get the impression, as he walks away from the Shelter back to his factory job, that he's more at peace with himelf, and that even if his dream of becoming a recording artist doesn't come to fruition, his determination to work hard - or his own words, "to live down here while aiming for up there" will eventually pay off. He may not achieve the stars, but he's guaranteed a low hanging apple for his efforts, and a ticket far away from 8 Mile road. A worthy, successful, and believable denoument. The finale, though scripted of course, might explain why Eminem stands head and shoulders above other rappers of similar talents and backgrounds; in his music, he holds nothing back, he brings his whole character to bear, revealing the dark part of his nature. The world is his confessional, and his audience the priest who must absolve him of his sins - not out of duty - but rather because he himself harbours the same sins to lesser of grater degrees of ugliness.

For me, however, the best part of the movie was, as I mentioned, witnessing the poetic process at work, the artistic act of creation if you will, and of the thinly veiled connotation of the public at large getting an intimate glimpse of the world's most talented rapper assembling mundane ingredients of his life and the life he sees around him, setting it to music, shaping a song that once completed will both add and serve to define our contemporary culture; on the bus on the way to work, in the trailer park alone with his baby sister, at his factory job, while fixing the engine of his car, we see Eminem's character jotting details in his notebook, or storing it in his memory for future reference. The end product, in both the film and in real life is the song "Lose Yourself," the underlying theme the movie, and the Billboard 100's present #1 single.

The title of the film, 8 Mile, is derived from the road that separates the predominantly the black ghettoes from middle-class suburbia of Detroit, but the film may also serve as a demarcation of another kind; the point at which Eminem
entered the mainstream and became an America icon. Check it out.

[Nightmare]

Wow...I had heard good things about it before, too. I'm definitly going to see it. Thanks for the lengthly review.

[humanflyz]

I've just seen 8 Mile today afternoon. I think Eminem is a pretty decent actors and that this is a very good debut. As Eminem (the poster, not the rapper) said, the rap contest scenes are the best ones in the movie. I also liked the scenes where Jimmy interacts with his little sister Lily. I thought it provided a nice break from Jimmy's otherwise frustrated and depressed personality. I also liked the somewhat underlying social commentaries about social class and race. The ending was good because it did not resort to the cliched ending where the audience sees Jimmy becoming successful as a superstart and gets rich, etc. Overall, it's a pretty good movie. But this is coming from an Eminem fan, so no guarantees.

[Vicsun]

Thanks for the review MM. I wasn't sure on weather I should watch the movie or not, but I think I just made a decesion .

BTW, welcome back to the boards. I don't think I've seen you for a while...

[Jaesha]

WB Em, nice review there! I was talking to a friend of mine about seeing it when it hits the theatres around here, if it´s anything like you´re saying, I won´t be wasting my money.

[EMINEM]

Well, don't take my word fot it. I might be... uh, slightly bias towards my namesake.

[Scayde]

MM: Brilliant job at your review..While I cannot say I will see the movie ( I am not at all a fan of rap music, and don't think I could endure it for two hours) I was very interested in what you had to say...an even a little tempted to buy a ticket .

Well Done !