poor young white man trying to break his way onto the rap scene

Rating: Null/10 (30 November 2003)

8 Mile is a story of a poor young white man trying to break his way onto the rap scene in the big ugly city of Detroit. Eminem plays the leading role of (Rabbit) who lives in a beat down trailer park with his dead beat mom played by Kim Basinger, and the trailer park is located on the other side of 8 mile road which is predominately lower class whites. Eminem's character works at a dead end factory that makes car parts.
When he isn't dealing with his mom or his workplace Eminem character is hanging out with his crew 313 including his best friend played by Mekhi Phifer. He and his crew are in constant pursuit to make a break in the rap game and sign a record deal. In this pursuit Eminem's character fights through tough times as a white kid in a predominately black industry while trying to find his identity and what kind of person he is going to be.

Directed by Curtis Hanson who has made memorable movies such as `L.A Confidential' and `Wonder Boys', 8 Mile pushes the issue of a white guy making it as a rap star. Before Eminem's time as a rap star white guys were regarded as a joke when it came to being a hip-hop artist. This is first depicted when Eminem does his first battle rap and freezes up on stage and is booed off, while you hear random comments about him taking his white ass back to 8 mile. But as with all the adversity that Eminem's character Rabbit faces, he survives and it only makes him stronger.
The tough times that Eminem (Rabbit) is put through help to build his character and this central insight is again relevant when Eminem's car breaks down and he gets a ride from his friend to work. Eminem states the following line `Hey Sol, do you ever wonder at what point you just got to say f-it man, like when you gotta stop living up here and start living down here?' This line really signifies the movie theme by saying how much crap can one person go through before they give up their dreams and live a so- called normal life.
8 Mile is `Rocky' for the hip-hop community, where a young low class white guy does the unthinkable by making a name for themselves in an industry where white guys are not the norm. 8 Mile could also be compared to plenty other American movies where this same sort of story line exist like `Karate Kid'.
Curtis Hanson also makes great use of Eminem's dominant talent, which is music and correlating it with the theme of the movie. In the scene after Eminem loses the battle rap the `theme song' of the movie is playing in the background as he is writing lyrics down while riding the bus. The lyrics are jumbled and missing as to signify his inability to put everything together to make a total song. This scene shows him trying to get over the fear of being labeled as a white rapper, which correlates with having no skills.

The race card is pulled many times during the film where characters make comments to Eminem about being white. As in real life in these racially heated situations, 8 Mile and Eminem show us that it is better not to lash back racially but to prove your enemies wrong with your display of skills and creativity.