Movie poster of 8 Mile
Curtis Hanson
Jimmy Iovine
Kim Basinger
Mekhi Phifer
Brittany Murphy
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| 8 Mile | |
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Movie poster of 8 Mile |
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| Directed by | Curtis Hanson |
| Produced by |
Brian Grazer Curtis Hanson Jimmy Iovine |
| Written by | Scott Silver |
| Starring | Eminem (Marshall Mathers) Kim Basinger Mekhi Phifer Brittany Murphy |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Released | 6 November 2002 |
| Running time | 110 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $41,000,000 USD (Est.) |
| IMDb profile | |
8 Mile is a movie starring Eminem (Marshall Mathers) as the young white rapper Jimmy Smith Jr. Eight Mile Road is a road which forms the boundary between predominantly African American Detroit, Michigan, United States and the city's mostly "white" northern suburbs. The term "8 Mile" therefore represents a barrier that is difficult to cross.
Besides Mathers, the movie stars actors like Kim Basinger, Brittany Murphy, Mekhi Phifer, Omar Benson Miller, Eugene Byrd, Michael Shannon, Evan Jones, Chloe Greenfield, Taryn Manning and De'Angelo Wilson.
The story of the film is about a young man living in Detroit who is supposed to be 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, which is Cranbrook, he lives with both parents, which are also married) which is usually very unfit in a hardcore environment like the 313, where you're supposed to be someone from "the streets". Not being this, this leaves his opponent speechless and Rabbit clinches the title. 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.
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 never made any allusion to this in any of the bonus feature portions of the 8 Mile DVD.
Other suggested parallels include but are not limited to:
Also note, 313 is Detroit's Area Code.
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.
The movie spawned two soundtracks, one of which featured several new songs by Eminem, along with collaborators 50 Cent and Obie Trice.
The second soundtrack 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 Cypress Hill and Montell Jordan amongst others are absent.
The score's most famous track, Eminem's "Lose Yourself" (played over the closing credits), won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Original Song. Eminem and co-writer Jeff Bass did not attend the award ceremony, nor was the song performed on-air for the awards show. Co-writer Luis Resto accepted the award on behalf of the other two.
The movie featured several music performers in small cameo roles, including:
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This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.