8 Mile Film Review

This film wasn’t just made for those hip-hop fans; it was made to capture an audience of both young and elder age groups. 8 Mile is probably one of the most inspirational and well thought out films. It’s based on a week in the lives of a group of young adults, who can only find a life of crime, smoking and drink. However there is one way out of this side of 8 Mile – through rap; which is the only thing that keeps this group of young adults positive. The main plot of the film centres on Jimmy ‘B-Rabbit’ Smith, Jr. (EMINEM). Although somewhat of the story is based on his own up bringing, some parts of it are adapted so this fits in with the plot.


After breaking up with his girlfriend, there is only one place for B-Rabbit to go, the trailer home – this is rather degrading for him as this means he will living back with his kid sister Lily (Chloe Greenfield) and pathetic excuse for a mother (Kim Basinger). B-Rabbit, to his friends is seen as the one that would make it as a hip-hop star. His ‘main man’ Future (Mekhi Phifer) is the announcer down at the shelter where all the freestyle rap battles take place. Every Friday night there is a rap battle competition and this night was going to be his night or so he thought, B-Rabbit took to the stage with many expecting him to produce some lyrics that would be unbeatable. But instead, all the hype surrounding him took its toll; he’d been beaten by stage fright. So for him it was back to working at Detroit Stamping and back to the dull everyday life – unless he got to see his ‘girlfriend’ Alex (Brittany Murphy). Well the word girlfriend is probably too stronger word for her, let’s just say when she wants something she’ll find him. Following a battle in a car park – ‘the leaders of the free world’ turn up and Lyckety-Splyt makes a statement which angers B-Rabbit into pulling Lyckety-Splyt’ legs from beneath him. A small brawl breaks out between the two groups. This feud continues throughout the film, and B-Rabbit decides to take up Wink’s offer of free studio time, then only to find that he has been betrayed, his ‘mate’ has seemingly got far to involved with B-Rabbit’ brief fling, Alex. He doesn’t take kindly to this, storming in and delivering several punches to Wink’s face. Everything comes to an end when ‘the leaders of the free world’ turn up at B-Rabbit’ trailer home. Having been told about how Wink had been repeatedly punched. They decide to pay the favour back with some force in the shape of six full grown men and Wink returns a punch back as well, leaving B-Rabbit with a black eye. The beatings that he takes, anger him – but this time B-Rabbit doesn’t choose to react with violence, he let’s his rhymes and raps do the damage.

A week after being beaten by stage fright, B-Rabbit lyrically destroys two members of ‘the leaders of the free world’. In the final he faces defending champion and head of ‘the leaders of the free world’ Papa Doc. Instead of going second like he had been in previous rounds, Papa Doc made B-Rabbit go first. For a moment he stares straight at Papa Doc, then with the microphone in hand he turns to the crowd and starts his rap – first insulting ‘the leaders of the free world’ then himself and Papa Doc. As he comes to the end of his rap B-Rabbit goes without a beat and finishes in spectacular style. Now came the turn of Papa Doc, who doesn’t know what to say, because B-Rabbit has insulted himself and Papa Doc. This meant B-Rabbit had won.

There are many codes and conventions in 8 Mile. Editing techniques are just one of them. In the film there are many simple cuts. An example of this is when Lyckety Splyt is making a statement in the car park and then B-Rabbit pulls his legs from beneath him. As with all films the use of camera can mostly determine what sort of setting or describe the area through just the image on the camera. The camera captures the emptiness of Detroit, the stark portrait of a city that isn’t moving anywhere – just year after year it’ll carry on being the same. Most scenes on camera, are indoors or outside with cloud cover and at night, it gives the impression that no-one in this area of Detroit is happy and there seems nothing around even to bring a wry smile to the slumped and be draggled faces. In terms of camera and lens movement – some scenes use what is called following pan. A scene in which following pan is used; involves B-Rabbit driving and he spots ‘the leaders of the free world’ parked up across the road. He parks up and briskly walks across the road to confront ‘the leaders of the free world’; the camera maintains the same base position. 8 Mile also uses the surveying pan; there is only one scene in which the surveying pan is used by the directors. As B-Rabbit takes his sister Lily into the trailer home, the surveying pan slowly looks over his shoulder and scans the trailer park, then focusing in on ‘the leaders of the free world’s’ car slowly rolling on the gravel road towards his mum’ trailer home. It’s building up to a climax.

There are also plenty of camera angles and shots. One of the camera shots that are used throughout the film is the over the shoulder shot. The director decides on this shot for many of the scenes to show emotion and body language of characters. Any close-ups that are used mostly centre around the main character, B-Rabbit. Establishing shots are also at the start of some scenes; this is to show a clear image of the location. Most of the sound in 8 Mile is diegectic. This means that both characters and the watching audience can hear it. The music that the characters are listening to provides an inside to what mood they are in. The very last scene in the movie uses non-diegetic sound; only the audience can hear this. It shows B-Rabbit talking to Future outside the shelter and then him walking of down a dark side alley. The track ‘Lose Yourself’ by Eminem is played overtop, to show that he has finally made it in the hip-hop world. Lighting in this film, is shown and presented at a premium. The light of Detroit, the location for the film – doesn’t have any sunshine during the day. Everything around is lighted in darkness and gives the audience an insight into poor living, a city that is dominated by African-Americans and finally a sense of danger. Mise-en-scene plays quite a big part in 8 Mile. Facial expressions and body language are at large – particularly those of B-Rabbit. His facial expressions portray how he is feeling most of the story – it shows his anger and frustration of everyday life in Detroit. B-Rabbit’ body language presents how he is feeling, for example he walks with his head down possibly suggesting that his life is rubbish and there isn’t out of this dead-end city. The costumes of characters are made to fit in with the poor surrounding area. For example B-Rabbit and mates are always dressed in hooded jumpers, tracksuits and jeans. Just through the clothing the audience can perceive what type of socio-economic area it is. Set in the heart of Detroit, the setting of this film shows that it is a case of earning respect, you don’t just get it – it isn’t like any other city, where respect comes with manners.

It could be seen as one big cliché, but Eminem adds something to it – which other previous acting wannabes haven’t, he involves a lot of his own body language and facial expression that he uses in real life. He doesn’t really try to use his own attitude to much, because the film isn’t fully biographical – but what he does do is creates a very watchable and entertaining film.