8 Mile
Director: Curtis HansonFor tens of thousands of years, rappers were the greatest artists of literature in the world. Unfortunately, we don't know the names of these brilliant but forgotten authors. It has only been in the brief, recent past that the artform of rapping was supplemented by the more permanently recorded written word and by the movies, and it didn't take long for rapping to reassert itself, not as the predominant literary format, but, ironically, considering its past glories, as the primary literary format of underclass expression, like the hero who returns home after a long journey to champion the oppressed.
Eminem, a white but legitimately rooted underclass rapper, stars in a fun little Widescreen movie from Universal, 8 Mile (21981, $27), about a rap subculture called 'battling,' in which two people, who have apparently memorized rhyming dictionaries, face off and extemporaneously insult one another in verse. The film is an imitation of a low budget, inner city beginner's film, but it was directed by an 'A list' director, Curtis Hanson, and it is just a bit too clean around the edges to hit you the way it pretends that it wants to. One of the characters in the film is a middle class black who slums with his buddies on the streets but who is ultimately brought down by the reverse illegitimacy of his social background. The film plays the same way. A sloppier, edgier movie might not have been as 'safe,' but it also might have soared emotionally the way this film desperately wants to but can't. The one exception to this generalization is the brilliant performance delivered by the previously overrated and sometimes embarrassingly bad actress, Kim Basinger, who is so good playing Eminem's alcoholic mother that it is her presence, and not the fully enjoyable but rather silly 'rap battles,' that make you want to watch the film more than once.
The letterboxing has an aspect ratio of about 2.35:1 and an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback, a format that seems a little at odds with the camcorder milieu the movie is depicting. The film's color design is deliberately and almost too perfectly drab, and the DVD delivers it accurately. There is both a 5.1-channel Dolby Digital track and a slightly crisper and weightier DTS track, which present the movie's sound with sufficient clarity. During the most elaborate audio sequences, the film intends to envelop the viewer in the experiences it is depicting and the audio mix serves that purpose effectively.
The 111-minute program has an alternate French audio track in 5.1 Dolby and a Spanish track in standard stereo (the raps remain in English, including the lunch wagon rap), well-appreciated optional English subtitles, a good cast & crew profile section, a production essay, an itemization of the film's music, a trailer, a pornographic music video, a passable 10-minute production featurette and an enjoyable 24-minute depiction of a rap battle, like the ones in the movie, that was held to keep the extras entertained, which concludes with Eminem somewhat unchivalrously dissing a female rapper.
