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Success for 8 Mile
Singer Eminem's venture into films nabs $51 million in three days
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Arthur J Pais
The buzz was clear: 8 Mile, one of the surprises at the Toronto International Film Festival, was bound for the Oscars. And it was a movie, the buzz also said, that could be a modest hit. Imagine, then, the surprise when the film nabbed $51 million in just three days.
Brian Grazer, producer of 8 Mile whose hits include A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13, expects 8 Mile, which tells the rise of a rap artist in a bleak American city, to be a worldwide success --- even among people who do not know anything about rap music.
"Just as you don't have to appreciate boxing to like Rocky or Raging Bull you don't have to be a rap fan to appreciate 8 Mile, he says. "It's about human endurance, tenacity, getting into the world and surviving it."
When the box-office numbers started coming out on Sunday, Universal Pictures honchos clearly said they had expected the movie to open with about $30 million in its first weekend. Though the Monday's actual figures were $4 million short of Sunday's estimate, it could not be denied that a huge hit was in the making. And the rap artist Eminem, who had made his debut with the film, had become a star overnight.
Just as he is hugely popular, Eminem, whose album The Slim Shady sold more than seven million copies worldwide, is also controversial. His critics find in his lyrics too much of anger and sexism. Many women would not want to listen to him. And yet the astounding success of 8 Mile, based loosely on Eminem's life in impoverished Detroit, would not have been possible without the support of women. Nearly 50 per cent of the audiences were women and many were in their 20s, exit surveys showed.
"Eminem's albums feature parental-advisory labels that warn of the rough language within," wrote San Francisco Chronicle. "The only caution that Eminem's new movie should have is for people who'll assume it's an offensive, foulmouthed, sexist, violent romp that glorifies abhorrent behavior. 8 Mile is rated R, but the movie -- a dramatisation of Eminem's early rap life -- is more funny than foul, more inspiring than infuriating, more touching than not."
Director Curtis Hanson, whose L A Confidential was a modest hit five years ago and was nominated for key Oscars, has suddenly become one of Hollywood's hottest directors. His new movie, made for about $40 million, is expected to break even in about two weeks.
The film, which eschews the violence and rawness of Eminem's lyrics, is essentially a story of a young man fighting against odds and succeeding, Hanson says. Hence the universal appeal. His film is not about rap music, he told his production team right from the start. "It was about a journey," he added. Though the movie does not gloss over inner city ugliness and dismal settings, overall it is hopeful.
"In 8 mile, we are exposed to a world little known or visited in a film, or in the mainstream news coverage: impoverished America struggling to make it legitimately in the recesses of an inner city," Hanson said.
The movie's title refers to the street that divides desolate, mostly African American inner city Detroit from its pristine suburbs dominated by whites. Eminem's character, however, is white but most of his friends are African Americans.
"The people in Detroit know 8 Mile as the city limit, a border, a boundary," Hanson said.. But for the character of Jimmy (Eminem), 8 Mile is the psychological diving line that separates him from where he wants to be and who he wants to be. If you think about it, we all have our own 8 Mile."
As the Chronicle critic noted, "In many ways, 8 Mile is a Rocky-like tale of determination and long odds that will appeal even to those who are turned off by most rap music."
Though the movie offers a sanitised version of the rapper's life, it is gritty and raw in many places. "I wanted the movie to feel real," Hanson said. "Almost documentary-like."
He sought out Mexican-born cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto whose work includes the recent Frida and last year's Amores Perros. "Curtis said he wanted 8 Mile to look and feel like a weed emerging from the sidewalk. I really loved that image."
Prieto says there was certain amount of anarchy while shooting the movie. "When things are not perfect, it is more spontaneous," he says, "and that's the way we approached the photography." The movie was shot mostly in winter with a hand held camera. "Curtis and I talked about the way these guys live and how they do free style rapping, and that's the way we shot it --- free-styling and with a lot of improvisation."
Hanson says he could not have asked for a better collaborator. "I wanted the audience to feel that they actually went into that world, too," he says. While he knew that the likes of Prieto were easy, to engage, he was a bit apprehensive how Eminem , who had been signed for the movie before Hanson came aboard, would shape in as a collaborator.
"He came at the job with humility, respect and tremendous self-discipline," Hanson says. "No matter how difficult the circumstances, he was always determined to do his best and to find the truth in every moment."