8 Mile (film)
8 Mile is an Academy Award-winning 2002 film starring
Marshall "Eminem" Mathers as Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith Jr. It
is set in Detroit, Michigan during 1995. Eight Mile Road is a road which forms
the boundary between predominantly African American Detroit, Michigan and the
city's mostly white northern suburbs. The term "8 Mile" therefore represents
a barrier that is difficult to cross.
Besides Mathers, the stars of the movie include Kim Basinger, Brittany Murphy, Mekhi Phifer, Omar Benson Miller, Eugene Byrd, Anthony Mackie, Michael Shannon, Evan Jones, Chloe Greenfield, Taryn Manning, and De'Angelo Wilson.
Taglines:
Every Moment Is a Chance
to Turn It Around.
Every Moment Is Another Chance.
Cast
Eminem
as Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith, Jr.
Kim Basinger as Stephanie Smith
Mekhi
Phifer as David "Future" Porter
Brittany Murphy as Alex
Evan
Jones as Cheddar Bob
Omar Benson Miller as Sol George
De'Angelo Wilson
as DJ Iz
Eugene Byrd as Wink
Anthony Mackie as Papa Doc
Craig Chandler
as Paul
Spoiler
The film begins with Eminem's character Jimmy "B. Rabbit" Smith Jr. at a local rap battle emceed by Smith's friend David "Future" Porter (Mekhi Phifer). A nervous Rabbit chokes at the mic and exits the competition.
After the initial scene at the music event, the movie focuses on Jimmy, a young sheet metal factory worker who is struggling with different aspects of his life. He has moved back north of 8 Mile to the rundown trailer home in Warren of his alcoholic mother Stephanie (Kim Basinger), his much-younger sister Lilly (Chloe Greenfield), and his mother's abusive live-in boyfriend Greg (Michael Shannon). Jimmy is focused on getting his music career started, but he seems unable to catch a break. Just prior to the events of the film, he ends a relationship with his girlfriend Janeane (Taryn Manning), and during the film, begins a new relationship with Alex (Brittany Murphy).
As the film progresses, Jimmy comes to realize that his life has remained largely the same since high school. At first, he considers himself a victim of his circumstances and blames others for his problems. Over time, though, Jimmy begins to take responsibility for the direction of his life and realizes that he has a large degree of control over how it will go. He begins to question whether his group of friends, including Future, are holding themselves back from moving on to bigger things. "All we ever do is talk shit," he tells them, as they bicker about the best way to become successful in the music business. With his onstage choke still fresh in his mind, he appears to decide that he will give up on or postpone his dream of a music career in favor of devoting more time to his day job and building a home life. Jimmy's newfound responsibility becomes evident to his supervisor at the factory as well. At the beginning of the film, when Jimmy requests extra shifts, his supervisor laughs at him, but by the end, Jimmy's improved attitude and performance earn him the extra work he had wanted. However, a late night shift conflicts with the next battle tournament. Jimmy initially doesn't want to go, but a visit from Alex changes his mind.
The climax of the movie takes place at the battle. Rabbit's friends hype him throughout the film as an incredible rapper, but until this point the film only shows snippets of his skills. The tournament has three rounds, and in each of them Rabbit faces a member of the "Leaders of the Free World", a group that feuds with Rabbit and his friends throughout the film. Rabbit wins both of the first two rounds with progressively more impressive freestyle raps. In the last round, he is paired against Papa Doc, the tournament's most feared battler and Jimmy's main antagonist throughout the storyline. Rabbit is aware that Doc knows all his weak points, so he decides to address them preemptively with his freestyle. Rabbit acknowledges without shame his white trash roots and the various humiliations the Free World clique have inflicted on him. He then uses the difficult life he's had as a springboard to reveal the truth about Papa Doc: despite passing himself off as a thug, he has a privileged background. Doc, whose real name is Clarence, attended Cranbrook, a private school located in upper class Bloomfield Hills which is usually very unfit in a ghetto environment like Detroit. Rabbit makes a reference to Shook Ones Pt. II, the beat that the DJ is spinning, by calling Poppa Doc a "halfway crook", which sends the crowd into a frenzy. Doc is left with nothing to say in rebuttal, drops the mic, and Rabbit takes the title.
As a final sign of his growing maturity throughout the film, Jimmy resists the pleas of his friends to go out and celebrate his victory, and instead he quietly walks off into the night to return to his shift at the sheet metal factory.
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