The cult of personality is such a conspicuous
feature of the culture of of modern capitalist societies, starting in the
nineteenth century with figures such as Lord Byron and Franz Liszt, that it is
hardly surprising this phenomenon should have been interwoven with the growth of
the commercial cinema from its primitive beginnings down to the present. On the
one hand, producers have wooed celebrities to appear on screen, while the movie
industry, on the other, has generated pop icons like Charlie Chaplin or Marilyn
Monroe, whose appeal transcends that of mere show biz personalities.
A perfect illustration of this mechanism at work
is 8 Mile, directed by Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential), a movie which serves as the debut
appearance of the rap artist Eminem, whose popularity will undoubtedly grow even
larger as a result of the success of this picture. As a showcase for its star, 8
Mile works very well; as a motion picture, it works a bit more intermittently. But the
movie has energy to burn. 8 Mile
is a very well-made, highly entertaining commercial
production, and I felt like standing up and cheering at the end, in spite of my
reservations.
Jimmy
"Rabbit" Smith Jr. (Eminem) is an aspiring white rapper who lives
with his single mother Stephanie (Kim Basinger) and little sister Lily (Chloe
Greenfield) in a mobile home in an impoverished, racially mixed Detroit
neighborhood--the 8 Mile of the film's title. In the opening
scenes, Rabbit is slated to challenge another rapper at a local club, but
backs down when on stage. The remainder of the action shows how he eventually
overcomes his inhibitions and not only defeats his rival but becomes a star in
the process. Needless to say, Rabbit's rise to fame requires him to overcome
numerous obstacles, among them having to work in a stamping mill during the
day and navigating a messy relationship with a neighborhood girl, Alex
(Brittany Murphy), who wants to pursue a career as a model in New York.
The magazine Men's Health once contemptuously
dismissed Eminem with the comment "At last, white trash has found a
voice." 8 Mile more than demonstrates just how cheaply shallow--not to
mention short-sighted--this judgment was. Eminem is somewhat diffident as an
actor playing a role, but the instant he starts rapping, watch out! The dude is
electricity incarnate. Part of the problem here, I think, results from the
movie's intentional confusion of Marshall Mather/Eminem with the character of
Rabbit, and the performer doesn't seem always certain about how to deal with
this dilemma--when to shift gears, so to speak. But the neophyte is helped by
some strong performers in supporting roles, especially Meki Phifer--who was
outstanding playing the lead role in O--as
his friend Future.
In this movie, next to the evocatively snarly
voice he deploys in the rap sequences,
Eminem's strongest asset is his highly expressive face. In closeups, Eminem
reminded me of the young Robert Mitchum. Like Mitchum, he has rather unusual eyes.
But where Mitchum's gaze combined sultry sensuality--he was one of the most
sensual male actors ever to appear on the American screen--with a kind of amused
sullenness, in Eminem's it is the sensuality which recedes far into the
background. But the sullenness that occupies the foreground is more defensive
than aggressive. Rabbit's look is that of a street guy nervously expecting all hell
to break loose at any moment--the look by no means uncommon among contemporary American urban
youth, black or white.
In his review of 8 Mile for the Los
Angeles Times (11/8/02), Kenneth Turan pointed out the film's reliance on
hoary clichés of sports movies--for example, the progression up to a
confrontation between the two rival rappers at the movie's conclusion. But I
found far more distracting 8 Mile's recourse to the clichés of
literary naturalism. It seems a little obvious when Rabbit returns home at the
beginning for him to find his welfare mother copulating with her lover, Greg
(Michael Shannon). Nor are his subsequent Oedipal confrontations with Greg
much more inspired. Contrivances of this sort are little more than the stale
leftovers of Clifford Odets or James Farrell. At its
crudest level, 8 Mile
is Studs Lonigan with a white trash family in place of a poor Irish one.
The scenes of the rapper at home have an
awkward, almost stilted quality. The dialogue hangs heavily in the air, and
the pace almost falters, particularly in a bad scene in which Mom Smith
attempts to discuss her amatory problems--Greg's reluctance to engage in oral
sex--with her son. Fortunately, everything changes the instant Rabbit is
hanging out with his bros. Then the rhythms of their spoken interchanges
determine the rhythm of the film itself--and therein lies its strength. 8
Mile captures the feel of contemporary American
language as few movies ever have, and never more so than when the dialogue
spontaneously transforms itself into rap. Even visually, the
film--ably photographed in subdued colors by Rodrigo Prieto (Amores Perros)--changes,
shifting to an edgy, cinéma vérité style that perfectly complements
the action.
Quite laudably, 8 Mile is trying to show
a slice of American life that rarely gets on the screen. I can't imagine this
is the image of the United States the folks in the White House like to see
being shown around the world. All the better! But the movie doesn't need to
fall back on outdated plot devices to explain the anger Rabbit vents in his
raps. How could anyone forced to grow up in such
miserable surroundings not be filled with rage, even if his family was
as genteel as Peter Parker's in Spider-Man?
The interesting
question 8 Mile
tacitly raises is how the richest nation in the world can tolerate its
citizens living in squalor--powerfully documented in the film by shots of
urban blight as Rabbit and his buddy drive to work--without batting an
eyelash. A few years back, Warren Beatty's Bulworth ventured
into this territory with some location photography of Southeast Los Angeles,
but 8 Mile goes much farther. Since Vice President Cheney keeps
assuring the public that the inhabitants of Iraq cannot wait to exchange the
dictatorship of Saddam Hussein for the American Way of Life, I suggest some
screenings of this movie in Baghdad to let them see what they are in for.
Production
data courtesy of The Internet Movie Database
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