8 Mile (film)

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8 Mile
Eight mile ver2.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byCurtis Hanson
Produced byCurtis Hanson
Brian Grazer
Jimmy Iovine
Written byScott Silver
StarringEminem
Kim Basinger
Brittany Murphy
Mekhi Phifer
Music byEminem
CinematographyRodrigo Prieto
Edited byJay Rabinowitz
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • November 8, 2002
Running time
110 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$41 million[2]
Box office$242.9 million[2]
8 Mile is a 2002 American drama film written by Scott Silver, directed by Curtis Hanson, and starring Eminem, Mekhi Phifer, Brittany Murphy, Michael Shannon, and Kim Basinger. The film is based loosely on Eminem's actual upbringing, and follows white rapper B-Rabbit (Eminem) and his attempt to launch a career in a genre dominated by African-Americans. The title is derived from 8 Mile Road, the highway between the predominantly black city of Detroit and Wayne County and the predominantly White Oakland County and Macomb County suburbs. It was filmed mostly on location.
8 Mile was a critical and commercial success. Eminem won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Lose Yourself".

Plot[edit]

In 1995 Detroit, Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith Jr. is a young, unhappy blue-collar worker from a poor family. He has moved back north of 8 Mile Road to the run-down trailer home in Warren, Michigan of his alcoholic mother Stephanie, his little sister Lily, and Stephanie's abusive live-in boyfriend Greg. Although encouraged by his friends, Jimmy worries about his potential as a rapper. He falters during a rap battle one night at a local venue, the Shelter, and he leaves the stage humiliated.
Jimmy works at a car factory. When he asks for extra shifts, his supervisor laughs and dismisses his request on account of his habitual tardiness. Jimmy befriends a woman named Alex. Over time, Jimmy begins to take more responsibility for the direction of his life. When he exhibits an improved attitude and performance at work, his supervisor grants him the extra shifts he requested.
Stephanie receives an eviction notice as she cannot pay rent. Despite Stephanie's best attempts to keep the eviction notice a secret, Greg finds out about it. A fight ensues between him and Jimmy, and Greg leaves Stephanie for good. Jimmy's friendship with Wink, a radio DJ with ties to a record label promoter, becomes strained after he discovers that Wink does promotional work for Jimmy's rivals, a rap group known as the "Leaders of the Free World." At one point, Jimmy and his friends get into a violent brawl with the Leaders, which is disrupted when Jimmy's friend Cheddar Bob pulls out a gun and accidentally shoots himself in the leg; he survives but is confined to crutches.
At work one day when on lunch break, Jimmy witnesses a rap battle in which an employee insults a gay co-worker, Paul. Jimmy joins the battle and defends Paul. Alex is impressed by Jimmy's actions; they have sex in the factory. Wink arranges for Jimmy to meet with producers at a recording studio, but Jimmy finds Wink and Alex engaging in intercourse. Enraged, Jimmy attacks Wink as Alex tries to break up their altercation. In retaliation, Wink and the Leaders of the Free World assault Jimmy outside his mother's trailer. The leader of the gang, Papa Doc, holds Jimmy at gunpoint, threatening to kill him before being dissuaded by Wink.
Jimmy's best friend and battle host, Future, pushes him to get revenge by competing against the Leaders of the Free World at the next rap battle. However, Jimmy's late-night shift conflicts with the timing of the next battle tournament. A goodbye visit from Alex, who is moving to New York, changes his mind about competing, and Paul agrees to cover his shift at work as a favor while Jimmy goes to the battle.
In all rounds of the rap battle, Jimmy has to compete against one member of "the Leaders." After winning the first two rounds, he faces off against Papa Doc and ultimately wins by exposing all of his opponent's weaknesses as well as his own. With nothing to say in rebuttal, Papa Doc hands the microphone back to Future, embarrassed. After being congratulated by Alex and his friends, Jimmy is offered a position by Future, hosting battles at The Shelter. Jimmy declines, saying he has to get back to work and to find success his own way.

Cast[edit]

Music[edit]

Main article: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture 8 Mile
Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture 8 Mile is the soundtrack to 8 Mile. Eminem features on five tracks from the album. It was released under the Shady/Interscope label and spawned Eminem's first number 1 US single[3] "Lose Yourself". The album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 Albums Chart that year with over 702,000 copies sold and 507,000 sold in the second week also finishing the year as the fifth best-selling album of 2002 with US sales of 3.2 million, despite only two months of release. It also reached No. 1 on the UK Compilations Chart and the Australian ARIAnet Albums Chart. It also spawned a follow up soundtrack, More Music from 8 Mile, consisting of songs that appear in 8 Mile that were current singles during the film's time setting of 1995. The album was also made in a clean edition removing most of the strong profanity and violent content.

Reception[edit]

Controversy[edit]

When B-Rabbit raps against Lil' Tic in the first battle the instrumental used was 'Time's Up' produced by Buckwild featuring O.C.. It was revealed by O.C. on the March 6, 2017 episode of Doggie Diamonds No Filter that this sample was never properly cleared with O.C. and Buckwild when the movie was first released.[4]

Box office[edit]

8 Mile opened at No. 1 with $51,240,555 in its opening weekend, the then second highest opening for an R-rated movie in the U.S.[5] The film would go on to gross $116,750,901 domestically, and $126,124,177 overseas for a total of $242,875,078 worldwide.[2] The film's final domestic gross would hold the film at No. 3 in Box Office Mojo's "Pop Star Debuts" list, behind Austin Powers in Goldmember (Beyoncé) and The Bodyguard (Whitney Houston).
The 8 Mile DVD, which was released on March 18, 2003, generated $75 million in sales and rentals in its first week, making it the biggest DVD debut ever for an R-rated movie and putting it in the all-time Top 10 for first week home video sales for a movie. A VHS version was also released on the same date.[6][7]

Critical reception[edit]

8 Mile received positive reviews, with critics praising the music and Eminem's performance. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports the film is "Certified Fresh", with 76% of 206 professional critics giving the film a positive review and a rating average of 7.0 out of 10. The site's consensus is that "Even though the story is overly familiar, there's enough here for an engaging ride."[8] On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 reviews from film critics, the film has rating score of 77 based on 38 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[9] CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend revealed the average grade cinemagoers gave 8 Mile was B+ on an A+ to F scale, with the core under-21 demographics giving it an A.[10]
Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars. He said that we "are hardly started in 8 Mile, and already we see that this movie stands aside from routine debut films by pop stars" and that it is "a faithful reflection of his myth". He said that Eminem, as an actor, is "convincing without being too electric" and "survives the X-ray truth-telling of the movie camera"[11] In the At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper review, both Ebert and Richard Roeper gave the film a thumbs up; Roeper said that Eminem has a "winning screen presence" and "raw magic" to him. He was happy with Rabbit's "tender side" presented through his relationship with the "adorable" Greenfield as his sister, but felt that Basinger was "really miscast". Roeper said: "8 Mile probably won't win converts to rap, but it should thrill Eminem fans."[12]
Peter Travers gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars. He said that 8 Mile "is a real movie, not a fast-buck package to exploit the fan base of a rap nonentity" that "qualifies as a cinematic event by tapping into the roots of Eminem and the fury and feeling that inform his rap." He praised Hanson's directing and the performances, and compared the final battle with Papa Doc to the fight between Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed in Rocky.[13]

Top lists[edit]

8 Mile has been named in various year-end and all-time top lists:

Awards and honors[edit]

In 2003, Eminem won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 75th Academy Awards, for his single "Lose Yourself" from the soundtrack of 8 Mile.[19][20] Thus he became the first hip hop artist ever to win an Academy Award. He was not present at the ceremony, but musician Luis Resto accepted the award.[21] The film has been nominated for 32 awards, winning 11.[22]
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

References[edit]

  1. ^ "8 Mile". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved 2012-01-29.
  2. ^ Jump up to:a b c 8 Mile at Box Office Mojo
  3. ^ "Eminem." Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 4th ed. Ed. Colin Larkin. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 27 Sep. 2016.
  4. ^ DoggieDiamondsTV (6 March 2017). "O.C. - Eminem Didn't Clear 'Times Up' Before He Used It In 8 Mile Movie" – via YouTube.
  5. ^ "Eminem movie tops at US box office". RTÉ. 2002-11-12. Retrieved 2011-10-06.
  6. ^ Hettrick, Scott (2003-03-24). "'8 Mile' DVD's going far". Variety. Retrieved 2011-09-20.
  7. ^ "Eminem Stars in '8 MILE' Coming to DVD and VHS March 18, 2003". PR Newswire. 2003-01-30. Retrieved 2011-09-20.
  8. ^ "8 Mile Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on 2008-07-30. Retrieved 2008-07-30.
  9. ^ "8 Mile". Metacritic. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  10. ^ "Box Office Prophets: Box Office Report for November 8-10, 2002". Box Office Prophets. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  11. ^ "8 Mile". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2011-02-27.
  12. ^ http://apps.tvplex.go.com/ebertandthemovies/audioplayer.cgi?file=021111_8_mile[permanent dead link]
  13. ^ "8 Mile". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  14. ^ Ramirez, Erika (November 8, 2012). "Top 10 Best Hip-Hop Movies Ever". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  15. ^ Sarris, Andrew (January 13, 2003). "The Best Films of 2002, And a Few Honorable Mentions". The New York Observer. The New York Observer, LLC. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  16. ^ Schickel, Richard (December 12, 2002). "Top 10 Everything 2002: Movies (Schickel)". Time. Time Inc. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  17. ^ Travers, Peter (December 26, 2002). "The Best and Worst Movies of 2002". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media, LLC. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  18. ^ "Best Films of 2002". The Daily Californian. Independent Berkeley Students Publishing Company, Inc. January 21, 2003. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  19. ^ "The 75th Academy Awards (2003) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2011-09-12.
  20. ^ "The 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards (2003)". Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Archived from the original on 2010-12-29. Retrieved 2011-12-26.
  21. ^ Bozza 2003, p. 174
  22. ^ "8 Mile". IMDB. 8 November 2002. Retrieved 15 September2016 – via IMDb.
  23. ^ "The 60th Annual Golden Globe Awards (2003)". GoldenGlobes.com. HFPA. 2003. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  24. ^ "Winners and Nominees for the 4th Annual Golden Trailer Awards". GoldenTrailer.com. 2003. Archived from the originalon February 23, 2014. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  25. ^ "2003 MTV Movie Awards". MTV. Viacom Media Networks. 2003. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  26. ^ "Past Winners". GRAMMY.com. National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. 2003. Retrieved February 17, 2014.
  27. ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs" (PDF). American Film Institute. Retrieved 2016-08-14.
  28. ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-14.

External links[edit]