Review by Leonard Norwitz
Studio:
Theatrical: Brian Grazer/Curtis Hanson
Video: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Disc:
Region: ALL
Runtime: 1:50:37.756
Disc Size: 22,271,656,788 bytes
Feature Size: 20,092,305,408 bytes
Average Bitrate: 24.22 Mbps
Chapters: 21
Case: Custom Blu-ray case
Release date: April 14th, 2008
Video:
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Resolution: 1080p
Video codec: VC-1 Video
Bitrate:
Audio:
DTS-HD Master Audio English 4097 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 4097
kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
DUBs: DTS Audio French 768 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps /
24-bit
DTS Audio Spanish 768 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit
Subtitles:
English SDH, Spanish & French
Extras (Hi-Def):
• (none)
Additional Extras (SD)
• The Making of 8 Mile (10:02)
• Exclusive Rap Battles Uncensored (23:39) first about rap
battles then the 20 15-second battles themselves.
• "Superman" Music Video Uncensored (5:02)
Exclusive to Blu-ray:
• (none)
The Movie:
7
If you've an eye for these things, you aren't likely to miss
the flash of Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life that
flickers in passing across the TV screen. It's a film about
coming to terms with one's true identity in racial terms, a
proper backdrop for Curtis Hanson's pop movie about a white
boy in a black man's world, whose only gift is his ability
to rap.
Enimen, the actor, renders a joyless rendering of his
character, Jimmy Rabbit, who hasn't much joy in his life to
console him. He just left his girlfriend because she was
pregnant, but left her his car as a sort of consolation
prize. (He's consoled; she's confused.) He practices the
rap gestures in front of mirror before throwing up before
going out on stage to confront his audience before freezing
and walking out in disgrace.
Jimmy's slatternly mother (a dynamic and unexpected Kim
Basinger) lives in a trailer with her young daughter – the
one creature he has unqualified love for – and her boyfriend
(the personification of domestic violence) – the one
creature he has unqualified disrespect for. Jimmy
demonstrates this, as he does with others, in his volatile
temper – as often the inciter of violence as its victim. It
is in the relatively constrained world of the rap battles
where insults can be hurled without likely violent
retaliation, but away from the stage, things can get pretty
dicey.
Rabbit hangs out with a small group of friends, among them
"Future" (Mekhi Phifer) who is the MC at the Shelter, a sort
of bombed out warehouse where rap battles are staged.
Future encourages Rabbit to take the stage and square off
against those who see him only as an "Elvis" – a white man
who appropriated the black man's music, so they say. A
potential new love enters: Alex (Brittany Murphy), who is
loyal to Rabbit, if not faithful, but we suspect she may be
using him as just one piece of her ticket out of Detroit and
on to New York.
The formula is familiar enough: talented kid fails, finds
love, loses love, pisses all over his friends in a deluge of
self-hate, finds self-respect and returns to the scene of
his disgrace to face down the opposition to cheers for the
new king. We don't get beyond this, to his likely success
(the movie being the legend of the Eminem persona itself),
nor does other pop music enter into this world, as if
Detroit's Motown had never existed. The movie is clear
about what it is and what it is not.
A personal view: I've long thought there was a tendency for
whites in this country to identify with what they saw as
black aggression just to keep it all safely at arm's length
- thus, in part, the embrace of rap. In the movie there is
always the threat of arbitrary and murderous violence, but I
gather that things are changing in the gangbanger world:
taking their cue from Stringer Bell, some of these guys
would now rather blend in with the business world than to
give it the finger, commit serious crime or go to jail.
Image: 9/9
NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were
taken directly from the
Blu-ray disc.
The first number indicates a relative level of excellence
compared to other Blu-ray video discs on a ten-point scale.
The second number places this image along the full range of
DVD and Blu-ray discs.
Except for a tendency for the blacks to block up in dark
scenes, which isn't at all inappropriate for the content of
this movie, I found the image to be very good, indeed. It's
sharp, solid, with honest and tangible textures and
surfaces. The grime and grunge of the back rooms at the
Shelter and the machinery at the punch press shop comes
through with gritty realism. I found no distracting
artifacts or enhancements.
Audio & Music: 7/7
I was surprised that the music did not have the punch or the
bass that I expected from a theatrical version of a rap
movie. Not that rap usually gets much better treatment on
disc. It's just that I thought that the money it would take
to produce a movie of this level would also come with a
dynamite soundtrack – like the music equivalent of The
Fast and the Furious. Not that there isn't plenty of
bass, it's just that's it's lacks huevos. I was
surprised, too, that the acoustic fails to change with
location within the Shelter and its corroders: the rap
challenge is happening a few turns away, but the music
volume and EQ remains the same as people make their way
toward or away from it. The occasional background hip-hop
instrumental score opens up the sound stage to bring in the
rears. But the real sound show is at the pressing plant,
which has some of the most crushing bass and shearing treble
you'll ever hear. And it feels REAL. (11 points there.)
Operations: 5
The menu is laid out like other Universal Blu-rays. Arrows
tell you which way to direct your remote, and the bonus
feature instructions are detailed and intuitive. But
particularly irksome was that there were no subtitles for
songs not sung by the actors. So, in the beginning of the
movie, for example, Eminem's character is listening to a
track on his headphones. We can hear it well enough. In
fact that's about all we do hear since it represents his
internal struggle to do battle in front of a live and likely
hostile audience. But no subtitles. I can make out Eminem
and his competition well enough when they rap in large part
because I have context and their performance to help guide
me. Even so, subtitles, which are available here, are
necessary for such as me who is relatively unfamiliar with
the genre. Without those cues, I'm at a loss. No subs. No
comprende. So, why not all the time?
Extras: 4
In the Making-of segment, Curtis Hanson (the director of
Wonder Boys and L.A. Confidential) and Brian
Grazer (the default producer for many a Ron Howard movie)
assure us of the realities of Detroit street life, of a
divided city, and especially the backstory of Eminem, and
how he worked out as an actor: Yes, he acts as well as he
raps. He's wonderful. Better than expected. Etc. Etc.
I'm happy to have their reassurance. Exclusive Rap
Battles (Uncensored)! Are there such things as censored
rap battles? What would be the point? This is actually a
fairly interesting featurette: a kind of video blog where
Hanson, who first makes some introductory comments about the
title "8 Mile" that divides the black hip-hop part of
Detroit from the white suburbs, and then invites the
"extras" that make up the audience for the Shelter rap
battles to do some impromptu rapping on camera in 15-second
snips. By turns the twenty "contestants" are ingenious,
amusing and whathefuck by turns. Speaking of uncensored,
Eminen's music video of "Superman" pretty much makes the
case for what engages and revolts its audience.
Recommendation: 7
It's now six or seven years after the fact, and 8 Mile
can be judged and appreciated for a movie on its own
terms as well as a kind of pop doc on rap culture or a
faux-biopic on the legend of Eminem. The Blu-ray sports a
terrific image. The audio is OK, I guess, some aspects of
it are significantly better than others. Extra features
pretty much suck. For devotees of the genre, this disc
can't be beat with a stick.
Leonard Norwitz
April 6th, 2009
