Away From The Hype: 8 MILE

In the late 90s/early 2000s, if you wanted to scare your parents you listened to Marilyn Manson or you listened to Eminem. Who knows how scared your parents actually were but the perception that buying The Slim Shady LP was a shot across the bows of your parental units and their rules was enough to make Eminem one of the biggest stars in the world. Also, it probably helps that he’s one of the most talented MCs to ever pick up a mic.

I was a massive Eminem fan from the first album. I had been a Marilyn Manson fan and dabbled in being a bit of a goth (it didn’t take) but when “My Name Is” came out, it was like a weird little light switched on in my brain. The funny thing is, I was never a rebellious kid. I never swore at my parents, slammed doors, or disappeared for hours on end. Though my mum usually reads these articles so she’ll probably be a better judge of that. 

I just liked the music and liked that it was funny and sweary and a bit wrong. Crucially though, Eminem was a gateway drug for me. Listening to him got me listening to Dr Dre, which led to Snoop Dogg to 2Pac to Biggie to Nas to Wu-Tang to Outkast, and on and on. But in the 2000s, Eminem was the shit and even though now I’ve moved away from his sillier songs and the ones seemingly made just to court controversy, I’ll still find myself hearing a freestyle from him and just not understanding how someone can do that on the spot. 

In 2002, Eminem was the star of 8 Mile, a sorta biographical movie about a white trash wannabe rapper and his quest for fame. Understandably there was a worry that a white rapper helming a movie was going to be Cool as Ice all over again. But where Vanilla Ice leant into his ego and manufactured a self-image as the coolest guy to ever live, Eminem set out to make a legitimate movie. 

Directed by Curtis Hanson (Oscar-nommed for LA Confidential) and written by Scott Silver (who would go on to be twice Oscar-nommed for The Fighter and Joker), 8 Mile announced itself as being more than just a puff piece or vanity project. More A Star is Born than Glitter. 

When it came out, I went to see it at the cinema three times in the same week. I bought the soundtrack, I memorized the rap battle verses, and I cheered Eminem when he won the Oscar for Best Song. And then I didn’t really think about it again for twenty years. I grew out of Eminem as he released new music that sounded like the old music, and I felt he wasn’t saying anything new. What had been controversial in the 2000s wasn’t anymore and though he’s still incredibly talented and probably one of the best MCs alive, whatever connection I had to the music was gone. 

Compiling this year’s list of Away from the Hype movies, I was flicking through the movies streaming at the moment and I saw 8 Mile was available and began to wonder if, twenty years later with my Eminem fandom cooled, would the movie still be as amazing as I once thought it was now that I can watch it away from the hype. 

8 Mile

Even though this movie is categorized as a drama, it has more in common with a musical or sports movie. It is Rocky with musical interludes because even though they’re not big show-stopping musical numbers, the rap scenes are songs and they do show plot progression.

The movie opens with Rabbit (Eminem) literally unable to find his voice and then gradually with each new rap scene he gets stronger and stronger until the big championship bout in which he is dominant.

Replace the rapping with boxing and this is not a hugely different movie from what we got. Poor white trash makes good is a sports movie archetype and ending the movie with a knockout punch to the trash-talking villain is a foregone conclusion. 

As someone who loves boxing, boxing movies, and hip-hop, this is still a very enjoyable movie. It has aged in parts, especially the liberal use of a homosexual slur by both villains and our hero but setting it in the mid-90s creates a timelessness as well, especially in terms of the soundtrack which features such 90s bangers as “Shook Ones pt. 2”, “Juicy”, “C.R.E.A.M.”, “Player’s Ball” and “This is How We Do It”.

The thing that is most impressive about 8 Mile is that it is a real movie. It’s not a vanity project or cash grab, it feels like they set out to make something unglamorous and realistic. There’s no big, career-changing finale for Rabbit. He wins the contest, and gains some respect, but then has to go back to work at a plant doing monotonous labor. 

He’s embarking on the first steps to a bigger journey where he becomes Eminem famous or maybe not. Maybe we just witnessed the best night of Rabbit’s life and everything after this goes nowhere. Like Rocky, though he showed he could go the distance, and in the context of this movie, that’s enough. 

It was an excellent choice by the filmmakers to not do a full life story biopic style movie. Instead, we get a single week in the lives of these characters and that’s enough. We see highs, lows, a love affair, a betrayal, and friends falling out and reconciling. It doesn’t have to speed through years and years just showing the highlights like Walk the Line or Elvis. 

Instead, we get the whole Eminem story in a microcosm. He grew up poor, he found a crew, he gained respect, he worked his way up. Another great choice was not having Eminem play Eminem. Having him play an Eminem-like character leaves them open to mess around. They don’t need to hit the career moments or feature Kim or D12. They can craft their own story that’s very similar to Eminem’s but with the freedom to be different.

Eminem was largely praised for his acting job and rightly so. This is a brave and ego-less performance by a non-actor that doesn’t try to make things easy on him. He is featured in every single scene and has to fight, get angry, get beaten up, have a sex scene, and portray a character seemingly carrying the weight of all creation on his shoulders. Curtis Hansen gives him no leeway and doesn’t make it easy for him. The only thing missing is a crying scene and that even feels in character for Rabbit as he is someone who bottles things up until they manifest as rage and lashing out at those close to him.

Since 8 Mile, Eminem has not done anything bigger than a cameo. Apparently after filming when asked about the experience he simply said, “Never again” and he stuck to that. 16-hour filming days while composing the movie’s soundtrack will do that to you I guess.

And maybe this is a good thing. After all, I don’t know if I could see Eminem playing a cop or the lead in a rom-com or anything in the fantasy or sci-fi genre. He made a single movie playing himself and it worked. That’s not a disparagement either. Other actors, musicians, wrestlers, and models have tried the same and failed. Perhaps it’s best to leave them wanting more. 

Conclusion

8 Mile has a lot of strengths but it really falls down with its female characters who seem only there to frustrate Rabbit with their insults, betrayals, and unreliability.

Britney Murphy‘s character is a love interest who inevitably cheats on him with another man. She plays the role with a slurry, washed-out expression as though she was just woken up before the director called “Action!”. But really it’s a thankless role in which her only job is to boost Rabbit’s confidence before being caught with another man.

Taryn Manning is Rabbit’s ex who tried to baby-trap him and then shows up at his work to insult him. And Kim Basinger as Rabbit’s mum is a horny drunk whose accent seems three or more states away from Detroit. It seems as though Basinger read the character was poor and lived in a trailer and decided that the only poor people in America were from the deep South so started practicing her drawl.

All three roles simply serve to exasperate and, in their way, motivate Rabbit to succeed through anger and a feeling that the world is against him. Other characters shit on Rabbit too but it would have been nice to see at least one positive female character helping him on his journey without having to drive him into a rage first.

The best scenes in the movie, outside the rap battle scenes, are the sequences of Rabbit and his crew hanging out. The five characters have heaps of chemistry and it really feels as though they’ve known each other since childhood so when they fight it makes sense when forgiveness comes easy.

Overall, 8 Mile is a very entertaining movie. Its lead performance is still strong away from Eminem’s initial massive fame, which I was frankly shocked by. In the years between watches, I had begun to suspect that my adoration of the movie and Eminem’s acting might have been because I was starstruck, but removed from all that, Marshall Mathers manages to be a commanding lead and a solid performer. And watching him lyrically destroy a bunch of assholes at the end is just the icing on the cake. 

Watch 8 Mile