8 Mile

Eminem's debut on the big screen was in 2002 with the semi-autobiographical movie called 8 Mile. Not only did the film open at number one on the U.S. box office, its soundtrack clinched the number spot on the U.S. Billboard 200, and the track "Lose Yourself" notched his first number one U.S. single. That's a lot of number ones. Co-hosts Jon and Mark journey through the inner Detroit rap battle scene to see how Rabbit and his crew got the last laugh on Papa Doc and the Free World.

Join us for a long walk all the way back to the trailer park. Just watch out for those paintball guns.

Transcript

Jon (00:00)
Tonight on the Rock and Roll Theatre Podcast, we walk all the way back to the trailer park, 8 Mile

Hello everybody, welcome back to the Rock and Roll Theatre podcast. My name is John, I'm joined here by my co-host, my brother Mark. Each episode here at the Rock and Roll Theatre, we take a look at movies, pop culture, all sorts of different fun stuff. And today we're tackling 8 Mile featuring Eminem.

Mark (00:36)
Eight Mile was released on November 8th, 2002. It runs one hour, 50 minutes. It is rated R. It is a drama slash musical movie. It was directed by Curtis Hansen. It's important to note here that Quentin Tarantino and Danny Boyle were also considered as directors. Boyle came close, but Eminem felt the strongest connection with Curtis Hansen. In terms of commercial success,

This movie opened at number one in the United States with over $51 million grossed in its opening weekend and an eventual total of almost $243 million worldwide against only a budget of $41 million. It's also important to note here that Eminem turned down roles in Training Day and The Fast and the Furious to star in his own 8 Mile.

Jon (01:30)
Eminem came onto the hip hop scene in late 1997. He'd toiled for a few years before that as a rapper with much more success for Eminem. he competed in the Rap Olympics in 1997. There were Interscope record executives in the crowd that noticed him, thought he was amazing. They got his demo tape into the hands of Jimmy Iovine, who is the president of Interscope Records, passed it along to Dr. Dre. Dre heard it and said, find me him now. They went on to make three records together at the end of the 90s. The Slim Shady LP, the Marshall Matthews LP,

and

the Eminem show. All of them were humongous hits. Songs like Without Me, Stan, My Name Is, the hits go on and on for Eminem. So here's where we find Eminem in 2001 going to 2002. He is on top of the world, on top of the rap game, and it's time to make a movie.

Mark (02:15)
This film follows the struggles of a Detroit rapper named Jimmy Smith, played by Eminem, as he makes his way through the city's rap battle scene. The title refers to Eight Mile Road, which is the road between the predominantly black communities in Detroit and the largely white suburban communities to the north that Eminem originally lived in. Production on this movie began in the year 2000, and it started filming in September of 2001 in Highland Park, Michigan.

Early drafts of the script didn't emphasize a connection to Detroit, so Curtis Hanson reworked it to firmly root the film in the city's culture and struggles. It also features numerous Detroit locals to maintain authenticity.

Jon (02:58)
I think Curtis Hanson made the right decision. Having the film set in Detroit gives a certain tone, a certain attitude that's prevailing throughout the entire film, which we are gonna get into in a moment. But before we do, we always warn you, spoilers ahead. If you haven't seen 8 Mile or you haven't seen it in a long time, hit pause, watch it, come back, we'll be right here. And just a quick shout out to everybody listening. Thank you so much. Make sure you like, subscribe, comment, five stars, whatever the case may be. Find us on the socials and check out the other things we have there. But for now, we're going to 8 Mile.

And we open up strong, hear shook ones by Mobb Deep Plain in the background and Eminem, Jimmy, Jimmy Rabbit is getting ready for his first rap battle.

Mark (03:43)
We see Rabbit, he's in front of the mirror, he's getting himself pumped up, he's kind of shadow boxing and kind of giving the mirror some attitude. We notice that he keeps the door locked because people keep walking by and knocking on the door and he keeps yelling, know, I'm busy, it's occupied.

Jon (04:01)
sadly, there's vomit on his sweater from his mom's spaghetti, which is a very classic line from this movie. And he's clearly showing his nerves. He's getting ready, they keep saying, rabbit, you ready, rabbit, you ready. Finally he is, he goes outside to get a breath of fresh air, and the bouncers won't let him back into the club. So he has to argue with them, hey, I'm about on stage next. So he has to kind of take the Hello Cleveland Spinal Tap, sneak through the club route, back onto the stage.

Mark (04:24)
While this is going on, we get introduced to his crew of buddies that he's with. So the main sort of ringleader here, Future, he's actually the host of the Rap Battle club that they're at. And we are seen with some of his other buddies like Sol George, Cheddar Bob, DJ Iz. We're getting kind of a, you know, they're giving him a hard time. Why do have your clothes in a garbage bag? Well, what are you doing? Like get yourself together. So we're introduced to that.

element of the movie. also found at this point that the setting is, you know, it's very gritty, it's urban, it's got nighttime vibes, you know, we're not going to be doing any scenes here where we're going to, you know, sunny beach picnic or anything like that.

Jon (05:09)
No, definitely not. So the reason why Jimmy has all of his clothes in a bag behind a dumpster is his ex has just told him that she's pregnant. so they broke up, he left, and he's going to stay with his mom. But first things first, it's time to battle. right away we sense that Papa Doc is the king of this scene. He's leader of the Free World crew, and he's the number one rapper in the area. And Rabbit goes up against him, Papa Doc lights him up right from the start. And Rabbit chokes.

He doesn't say anything on stage. just, can't get any words out. Papa Doc hits him with the great line, you're faker than a psychic with caller ID. And so Eminem is booed off stage. He's basically booed off stage and picks his tail behind his legs. Off he goes into the night and we hear the melodic theme for Lose Yourself, which is the big song from the movie. We hear a little bit of the theme just on the piano in the background.

Mark (05:59)
So with nowhere else to go, Rabbit goes back to where he's originally from, the trailer park. We discover that his mom is being played by Kim Basinger from Batman fame. It's also a fun fact here that Mariah Carey was originally approached to play Rabbit's mother, but declined. We also learn that she has a new boyfriend now. It's apparently some guy named Greg that Rabbit and his crew knew from high school.

But we also see that Rabbit really cares for his younger sister, Lily.

Jon (06:30)
His mom gives him a car as an early birthday present, however the car does not work. One of his promoter friends stops by, character Wink, and he's trying to hype up and tell Jimmy about all the different projects he's got going on and why you wasting your time with Future and all those rap battles. But Eminem's got bigger things to worry about. He's gotta get to work and his car doesn't work. We hear the theme for 8 Mile, which is a song off the soundtrack we'll discuss later on. We hear bit of that melodic theme as well here too. And he's writing his rhymes on the bus on the way to the car parts factory that he works at.

then as soon as gets to work, the character of Alex is introduced. She is played by Brittany Murphy, 90s star. immediately her and Jimmy have some vibes, but they don't get much time to talk because Jimmy's at work and she's looking for her brother who also works at the car factory. So he has to get down to work to fixing his car. this is a great scene. He's there with Future and the song Sweet Home Alabama of all things comes on and they start rapping along to the beat of Sweet Home Alabama. And there's a great line where he just instead of Sweet Home Alabama

He's like you live at home in a trailer in his perfect Eminem style and futures trying to hype them up to battle again Saying you won't choke this time. You're still the best Their crew is called three one third, which is three one three is the Detroit area code and they decide you well You know put all this stress behind us and we're gonna go hit the town for the night and they load into rabbit's car And we hear juicy by notorious big excellent song

Mark (07:52)
So now we see some poor decisions being made. As they're driving down one of the main streets in Detroit, Jimmy's buddy, Sol, pulls out a paintball gun from his jacket. I guess he was smuggling into the car. And everyone seems like this is a great idea. Let's, you know, point this out the window and start hitting different things with the paintball gun. So they start by, you know, hitting a few signs and a...

you know, a couple of people outside of convenience stores, that type of thing. And everybody's taking a turn with the gun. So then Jimmy decides he needs a turn with the gun as well. So he lets Future steer the car for him while he decides to shoot a police car.

Why would you do this? I don't know. Anyway, moments later, we hear sirens, but you know, Jimmy's car, it's not a very good car. It's starting to die. So they pull off to a side street. They gotta keep everything quiet. They gotta keep everything on the down low. They look pretty scared what's about to happen. And the cops just drive straight on by.

After this, we pull up to a street rap battle.

Jon (09:04)
I thought it was interesting too that they were shooting up a neighborhood that looked like they might shoot back if you shot a paintball at them with much more than a paintball. So kind of a risky adventure for the boys. But they do pull up to a rap battle that's basically going down on the street. Rabbit jumps in and just destroys everybody. Lays them out with huge bombs, huge insults. the crowd of onlookers are loving it, they're laughing. Alex is in the background actually, Jimmy's potential love interest here. But Papa Doc is not impressed with someone coming and stepping

to him. So a huge fight breaks out, nothing too crazy, they scuffle for a bit and they all decide to retreat to go to a tiki bar. And we do hear Feel My Flow by Naughty By Nature in the background. Alex is starting to get closer to Rabbit, they're talking at the bar and she explains to them that she wants to be a model and hopefully Wink can help her out.

Mark (09:50)
After that, we move on to kind of more of a fun scene. Everyone piles into the car after the party. It looks like there's like 12 people in this car. When I was watching the movie, like, I didn't bother pausing it, but I was just like, how many people could you possibly fit in the car? Anyway.

Jon (10:04)
It's shot very oddly, I agree. Yes, there could be well more than eight or nine or 10 people in the car. Everyone who's going to the party is in Rabbit's small car.

Mark (10:12)
So they eventually show up to this after party. It's in the basement of a house. I guess it's a little bit more chill, a little bit more relaxing. And we're learning different pieces of information about some of the guys in Free World. We're learning that maybe Papa Doc isn't so big, bad, and tough. He actually kinda comes from more of a softer background.

So there's a bit of a side journey here. DJ is one of the buddies in Rabbit's crew, starts telling everybody, okay, the urban decay going on in Detroit, this isn't cool, there's an abandoned house over here, there's these really bad crimes going down there. We should rid the city of this horrible thing, let's go burn down the house.

Jon (10:54)
It's also line in one of Eminem's songs with Dr. Dre, of course, where he says, and Dre stood next to a burned down house. So maybe a little nod to that as well too.

So now we head back to the trailer and things are not going well. Mom's getting evicted for not paying the rent for the last three months. Her ex stops by, a huge fight breaks out, and she drops a line to Jimmy, Rabbit, boot off stage, which is also used in Lose Yourself later on. And we see that Wink's starting to hang out with Papa Doc, and the crew is not having this at all. They roll up to this and they're like, no way, Wink, you're a sellout, how could you do this to your boys? Huge fight breaks out again, second time, but in the middle of the fight,

character of Cheddar Bob, the lovable loser pulls out his mother's handgun and fires into the air. No one's impressed. Everybody stops. Then and then they're saying, what are you doing, Bob? And he's like, well, what like Papa Doc has a gun too. And so you like put it away, put it away. So he puts it away and in the process shoots himself in the leg, which causes everybody to scatter from the fight. They load Cheddar Bob into the car. He's bleeding pretty heavily. And they take him to the hospital.

Bob will be okay, however, in the end, and after they're done at the hospital, Future's getting very mad with Wink and starts calling them out on what he sees as a betrayal to the crew.

Mark (12:11)
So now we're starting to see some of the internal struggles within the friend crew. You can kind of see that, you know, things aren't going so well and this is probably going to be a factor as the movie progresses.

But now we move on. Jimmy is back at the pressing plant and it's lunchtime. So this factory gets served by a lunch truck. Everybody is outside lined up at the lunch truck. Nobody looks too happy. Apparently they only get 30 minutes for lunch and maybe the choices aren't the best. We see another worker played by Exhibit from MTV's Pimp My Ride fame. And he starts kind of jawing at people and mouthing off at people and

You know, he's doing a little bit of a rap battle of his own with some of the other workers. It is a pretty good scene. However, Jimmy comes in here, shuts him down, ruins him, wastes him. Everybody is staring at him like, you fool, what is going on?

Jon (13:10)
I would say the score on that one is Eminem one, exhibit zero. we move on to Alex's, meets him at the lunch truck and they sneak off into the factory and decide to get very close. after that, the crew goes to visit Cheddar Bob. But Cheddar Bob's hiding in the house because he's embarrassed by what he did, shooting himself in the leg. So after everybody leaves, Jimmy kind of circles back around and comes in and talks to him and tries to cheer him up and say, know, yeah, you are kind of a loser, but you're our boy, you're our buddy, it'll be okay.

Then when he gets home to the trailer, Wink and Alex are at the trailer. this infuriates Rabbit. He doesn't want them to see where he lives, how poor he is, et cetera. So he kind of runs out into the street and is just kind of like, this isn't my life. I don't want this to be my life. Wink is trying really hard to get Rabbit on the radio.

Mark (13:57)
So this is where we see a montage of Rabbit working on his demo. We start to hear Lose Yourself taking shape. This is about an hour and five minutes into the movie. He's really working on it. You can really see that it's coming into its own. Fun fact here, Eminem wrote Lose Yourself during breaks on set of this film. I was pretty impressed by that because I would have thought maybe he had this fully written out in advance.

we're at a different scene now where Rabbit is back with the crew. But something's not right. He's getting mad at Future. Future comes into the room and Rabbit's like, look, you don't control me. People are saying I'm gonna be in the next battle. I won't be in the next battle.

Jon (14:40)
There's all sorts of drama going on here for poor old Jimmy. Greg has gone for good, which is good news because he wasn't treating the family too good. But Wink and Alex are getting closer and he's spending more time with her trying to help her with her modeling career. His mom's a mess. She's all messed up. She's angry. She's upset. She's clearly intoxicated. And so Rabbit just goes, I have to go. I have to go down the radio station and try to make something happen. But when he gets to the radio station, he realizes maybe he's not even booked to be there. The secretary seems kind of confused as to why

he's even there, but she kind of lets him just go, hey, well, go wander around the studio and figure it out. So he starts to wander around and he comes across Wink and Alex in a room getting very, very close, which, of course, infuriates him. A fight breaks out, Rap beats him up pretty good, but Wink is not happy with that, of course, so he wants revenge. So gets his new crew of buddies from the free world to find him, track him down at the trailer park. And this is pretty brutal scene. He has to take Lily, his little sister, who he in his arms, and run with her and put her in

the trailer and say close the door and as soon as that happens the guys beat him down pretty badly right in front of his sister watching through the window. It's kind of one of the tougher scenes of the movie and of course free world taunts him on the way out and choke art is the whole thing. But we do get some good news when mom gets home she has won at bingo so the trailer is saved Alex stops by to apologize to him and tries to encourage him to join the battle next week.

Mark (16:04)
originally, Rabbit says he's not going to the battle, but I guess now he's considering it. We're back at the pressing plant and his boss, who's not overly kind to him, says, you know what? I will help you out. I will give you those extra shifts. Can you do one tonight? And Jimmy's like, tonight? Is there a problem? No, no, that's fine. I can do it. So right away I was like, well, what is it? Like, I thought if he is going to go back to the battle after all, it's tonight. Well, what's going on here?

Jon (16:31)
Yeah, can't be taking extra shifts, Jimmy.

Mark (16:31)
But they clear this up for us. They

clear this up for us. He just simply asks one of the other guys outside having a smoke break, can you cover for me for a few hours? There you go. Now we're going back to the shelter for the rap battle. So this is leading up to be sort of the grand finale of the film. You can kind of feel it, like, okay, know, every, you know, the vibe is there, Rabbit is getting ready. He's downstairs with his friend crew. Everyone's being cool now. He's rapping with Cheddar Bob to kind of...

Jon (16:42)
That's it.

Mark (17:00)
you know, warm things up and get into good mood. He goes to talk to future one-on-one. They go to the bathroom and future is really cool with Jimmy. He's like, man, it's cool. I know you got mad at me. That's, know, don't worry about it. Focus on what you need to do here. So that's some good insight from future. It seems like he's being a true friend and he's, he's watching out for his boy.

Jon (17:24)
Papa Doc however is also in the dressing room and he is not being a true friend. The same insults are being yelled out from Free World at Jimmy and we're leading into the last 20 minutes of the film and like Mark said, the finale of the film. It's an excellent finale. It's the best part of the movie. If you're not interested in watching all of Eight Mile, after we've explained it to you, just go back and watch this scene. It is really well done. Even if you don't love hip hop, it's still a really good scene. so first up in the battle, Rabbit draws a rapper from Free World whose name is

lickety-split.

Of course, he starts with the don't choke rabbit. Don't choke and he does not choke at all He lights him up throws everything he said right back at him My favorite line says to me goes you're Eric Sermon the generic version then next up He has to battle Lotto another guy from his crew who is very much a DMX clone If you guys know the rapper DMX from the 90s same kind of barky wolf wolf dog style lyrics that DMX would do as well and But it's not really any different than what the first guy lickety-splicks said to him the same sort of insults

Jimmy's been hearing his whole life. So basically he turns it right around him again says you said everything the first guy said your tank top doesn't fit I'll get the seven digits from your mama for a dollar tomorrow in a really great line that ends the battle

Then FreeWorld starts to notice, hey, wait a second, maybe the crowd's starting to switch more here in Jimmy's favor, and they're not liking it, and they look a little bit shook watching on the sidelines.

So we've got to the final event, Pop It Doc versus Rabbit. This is the main event.

and Rabbit's gonna go first. He hits him with so many good lines. Every insult about himself that Papa Doc was gonna say about him, he says about himself already. Eminem is a master at this. He even works in Dr. style, one, two, three, and two, four. And he hits him with the big finish, which is, I know something you don't know. Flashing back to where I was the party a few days before, and Papa Doc's friends or relative of Papa Doc's at the party, he gave Jimmy a lot of, or she gave, sorry, she gave Jimmy a lot of

info and the mic gets cut and all of a sudden he's he just rips on him. Clarence went to private school. He has two nice parents. The whole place explodes. So I guess in that crowd going to private school and having nice parents is definitely a negative. So and then he ends with the great line, tell me something they don't know about me. And he throws the mic back at him.

Clarence, Papa Doc, has nothing to say. He chokes. Rabbits the champ, crowd goes nuts. It's an awesome scene. It's a great way to end the movie. And as he's leaving, Future says, hey, you you could host the rap battles with me. We could do this together all the time. And he turns him down and says, no, I need to do my own thing, which I is a great idea because he's obviously the strongest rapper of everybody in this movie. Then we hear, lose yourself for the full version for the first time and the credits roll.

Mark (20:13)
Taking a look at the film's music from and inspired by the motion picture 8 Mile. This was released on October 29th, 2002. Its genre is hip hop. It came out on a combination of Shady Records, owned by Eminem, and Interscope Records. A few important things to note here before we go through the songs. Obviously, it features Lose Yourself. This was actually Eminem's first United States number one single. It debuted at number one.

on the Billboard 200 and it sold over 700,000 copies in its first week. And it is a certified quadruple platinum record by the Recording Industry Association of America. So let's look at what we got here. First song, Eminem, Lose Yourself.

Jon (21:00)
You did mention earlier that he was working on the song as the movie was progressing in between breaks of takes. That really surprised me too, because it feels like the movie is based on the song, Lose Yourself, not the other way around. So it's really a testament to Eminem and what a great song it is. It's probably one his most quotable songs. Everyone says Mom's spaghetti is basically a reference for being nervous. There's a million great lines in it. It's a pretty long song. It's five minutes long with 520, I think, with the full piano intro. And it's just a great riff to everybody knows the riff to it.

And also there's a little bit of a nod to I feel like later on, know, I don't want to say stole, but Cypress Hills rock superstar follows this mode exactly.

Mark (21:41)
Next up, have Eminem with OB-Trice and 50 Cent. Love me.

Jon (21:46)
50 Cent was also signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath label and this is kind of the first push of 50 Cent. He's getting to get featured on the soundtrack. This is before his huge hit in the club. We'll talk about that in a minute. Obie Trice was also one of Eminem's pals, friends, part of his group from Detroit and it was another one that he got onto Aftermath as well. It's very much the style of the time. It's pretty good. It's a solid track. I liked it.

Mark (22:12)
Next up is the title track of the film, Eminem, 8 Mile.

Jon (22:16)
This song is not as well known as Lose Yourself, very similar, it's about six minutes long again, it's got a really good beat to it, perfect flow from Eminem. It goes through a lot of the details also in the movie, kind of like a part two of Lose Yourself, but I mean not as strong as Lose Yourself, but there's a lot of movie details in it and it has a rather long piano outro, which I think maybe they could have cut down a little bit.

Mark (22:39)
Ob-Trice, adrenaline rush.

Jon (22:41)
This is his solo track on the album and has a very good flow, almost a little bit of Buster Rhymes kind of sound to it, Shady Records mentioned many times. It's a little on repetitive side, but a decent song.

Mark (22:53)
50 cent places to go.

Jon (22:56)
This is 50 Cent solo track. I'm not really sure why this one was featured. It's okay. It's not great. 50 Cent, of course, has a million big hits and much better songs than this one.

Mark (23:06)
Up next is D12 with Rap Game.

Jon (23:10)
D12 was Eminem's, guess you would say, like friends, posse, rap group from Detroit that once he got big, he tried to help them out by giving them record deal. They were fairly big at the time. I remember their song, the more famous song is Purple Hills that was much more well known, which I remember was played a lot, saw the video many times when I was younger. It's kind of an ensemble song where everyone takes a verse, everyone, you know, does their thing. So it's a good song to feature who everybody is in the band.

Mark (23:34)
Next we have Jay-Z with Freeway. The song is called Eight Miles and Runnin'.

Jon (23:40)
Also a strange inclusion, Jay-Z is not in the movie, Jay-Z is not mentioned in the movie, but Jay-Z is a big star too, so I guess that's why they put him on the soundtrack. But I don't really think about Jay-Z when I think about Detroit and that style of rapping. It's okay, it's not great, like yet again, Jay-Z has much bigger songs than this one. It's an okay track.

Mark (23:59)
Exhibit Spit shine.

Jon (24:02)
Exhibit of course is in the movie in the rap battle at the food truck scene. It's a fun song, it's upbeat. I like it. don't love some of the lyrics, some of the he says maybe don't age so well in today's day and age. But overall, I mean, a strong song and of course, you know, gonna give Exhibit one because he was in the movie.

Mark (24:20)
Next we have Macy Gray with Time of My Life.

Jon (24:25)
This is a total change of pace. Macy Gray, much more of a soul influenced 1970s kind of style singer, but she has a very unique voice. If you know Macy Gray, you know what I mean. It's not bad. I liked it. It just seemed a little odd inclusion, but there it is. ⁓

Mark (24:41)
Nas, you wanna be me?

Jon (24:43)
I know Eminem is a huge huge fan of so I'm sure that's how this song got on the record. But yet again, look at the Jay-Z comparison. I think of Nas as a New York rapper, not so much Detroit. Nas is always good though, so this song is good.

Mark (24:57)
Next we have 50 Cent, Wanksta.

Jon (25:00)
Wanksta is a wannabe gangster. This is 50 Cent's first hit. I think it's also on his debut album. Produced by Dr. Dre, you can tell immediately when you hear it. The intro's good, the whole thing is pretty good. It's a classic song from 50 Cent.

Mark (25:13)
Next we have Boom Cat wasting my time.

Jon (25:17)
More of a slow jam. I'm not really familiar with boom cat or the song. I listen to it It's just kind of like filler

Mark (25:26)
Rakim R-A-K-I-M

Jon (25:30)
Of course, from the famous duo Eric B and Rakim, Paid in Full. Rakim is one of the best MCs to ever do it. It's a great song. It's always good to hear. It has a bit of an older sound than the other tracks in the album, because Rakim came up in the 80s and the 90s. So a good inclusion. Different. Didn't think it'd be on there. I liked it.

Mark (25:48)
Gangstarr Battle.

Jon (25:50)
This is a quick little fun ⁓ rap here. It's a lot of DJ work in it, a lot of scratching, interesting little song.

Mark (25:58)
Closing out the album, we have Eminem back again, this time with Rabbit Run.

Jon (26:04)
Really good song really strong not really I don't think as well-known M &M's catalog I wasn't really familiar with it I know a lot about M &M So I probably heard it when the soundtrack first came out many years ago But I hadn't heard it in 20 plus years and it was a much stronger song than I thought would be it was a good way to close the soundtrack I will note here. I mean it's at 15 16 tracks here This was a very long soundtrack and I think some things could have been cut

Mark (26:32)
Let's take a look at the movie's critical reception. Right now on Rotten Tomatoes, it's scoring 76 % on its tomato meter and 54 % on its popcorn meter. I was kind of surprised at how low that popcorn meter score is. I figured Eminem has a lot of fans. I'm assuming most of them would like this movie. So I was expecting a higher score there.

Jon (26:57)
I was too as well, when I saw it I was like, is that right? 54 %? This is really strong film. We'll get into more of our thoughts about it in a bit here. But 54 is way too low. I would say even if you're not a fan necessarily of Eminem or even of hip hop, it's still a very good movie.

Mark (27:12)
On Internet Movie Database, we have a 7.2 out of 10. In terms of other people in the movie industry, Roger Ebert awarded it 3 out of 4 stars and commended its authenticity and Eminem's performance. I do agree with that. Eminem gives a very strong performance. In terms of other awards, there's a decent pile going on here as well. So obviously the song, Lose Yourself, this won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. So that's a very big deal.

It also won two Grammy awards, best rap song and best male rap solo performance. Eminem also won two MTV movie awards for best male performance and breakthrough male performance. So we see a lot of praise here for how Eminem was able to pull this off his acting debut.

Jon (28:02)
And I think Eminem deserves all the awards he got. You and I both agree, excellent performance, completely believable, just a very strong showing from Eminem in his feature film debut. However, though, we have a tradition here on the Rock and Roll Theatre podcast, no matter what we watch, no matter how highly or lowly praised it is, my brother trolls the internet and finds a one-star review for everything that we see. So what do you got for us this week for our one-star review, Mark?

Mark (28:29)
This review is coming from the Internet Movie Database. It is from Asteri-Atypical on May 19th, 2003, one out of 10 stars. The title of the review is, A Movie Glamorizing the Thug Mentality, in quotes, and An Artist Utterly Without Talent.

Eminem would have you believe somehow he, in quotes, got out of the trash from whence he came. But anyone who has paid attention to the headlines has seen he is still nothing but a common criminal. Just one who gets paid millions for an utter lack of talent because his anger resonates with young hoodlums.

one could perhaps excuse his criminal past when he was a, in quotes, nobody. But now that Eminem has money and fame, what's his excuse for his criminal behavior now?

This is nothing but a movie glamorizing thugs, crime, and people without talent. The rap fans may like it as it's their fantasy, someone from the hood with no talent or brains making it big. However, few other people will appreciate this smut unless they are trying to be P.C. 16 people found this helpful, 38 thumbs down.

Jon (30:06)
Well, I think just he missed the mark on about everything in that review. ⁓ The box office sales, the awards, the enduring song, Lose Yourself, would definitely slap you in the face, buddy, that nothing you said there makes any sense. But hey, there's always a hater out there with a one star review.

Mark (30:21)
In terms of this movie's lasting legacy, 8 Mile is widely regarded as one of the most influential hip-hop films ever made. I would agree with that. It's on many best-of film lists for the year 2002. I think that's, you know, it deserves to be there. Obviously, Lose Yourself is a landmark song in the rap genre.

Jon (30:42)
Unlike a lot of things we watch here in the Rock and Roll Theatre, Eight Mile Still really holds up. I liked it as much as did when I saw it in the theatre 20 plus years ago. It's still a strong film. It still works really well. The noticeable comparison is to Purple Rain, the Prince film, which we covered in episode two, by the way, of the Rock and Roll Theatre podcast, if you want to check it out.

The law of the plot points are basically identical between Purple Rain and Eight Mile. However, I feel like Eight Mile did a much better job of it. The acting is so much better. It's shot better. Everything about it eclipses Purple Rain. I hate to say it in my opinion.

Mark (31:16)
I think Eminem delivers a really strong performance in this movie and his acting does feel authentic. found though maybe it could have had a few more scenes about music. Like there's really only the rap battle scene at the beginning and the end but maybe I was expecting a few more to be peppered in there. And okay maybe it was a little bit predictable but overall I thought it was pretty strong. The movie does continue to influence pop culture these days though especially that final battle scene.

That's frequently referenced, parodied, and is presented as sort of a very iconic moment in cinema.

Jon (31:53)
I really enjoyed my rewatch here of 8 Mile after not seeing it for many years. Yet again, like I said, even if you don't want to watch the entire film, go back and watch the battle scenes. They're so well done. You see why Eminem is a legend that Eminem is. His performance is just perfect, especially in the rap battles. I also liked that it was set in Detroit. I visited Detroit before, actually Eminem has a restaurant called Mom's Spaghetti that I have eaten at, and it was great takeout spaghetti food in a ⁓ Chinese container takeaway box. And for 10 bucks on a cold night in Detroit,

It was absolutely perfect. So I love the setting for the film. I loved all the performances. I thought of a lot of the things we watch here. This is one of the stronger films we watched.

Mark (32:31)
Lastly, we'll point out that was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.

Jon (32:38)
Thank you so much for joining us tonight here in the Rock and Roll Theatre Podcast. Make sure wherever you're at in the world, like, subscribe, comment, five stars, all those things help out a really small independent podcast like us. But until next time, the theatre is closed.