Curtis Hanson’s 2002 film, 8 Mile, is a hip hop biopic of the rapper’s, Eminem, life. The film takes place in Detroit, Michigan during 1995 and follows Jimmy "B-Rabbit" Smith Jr. as he attempts to launch his career as a rapper in a genre dominated by African Americans. The film not only depicts Detroit during the time period, but the racial struggles Rabbit goes through to prove himself. The overall film examines how economic status intersects with issues of race, gender and class.
When the film begins, the viewer is immediately introduced to Rabbit. Rabbit, a tall and slim white male, is seen getting ready inside of a bathroom for a rap battle by standing in front of a mirror rapping to himself. He is wearing an oversized zipped up hoodie,
…show more content…
He holds a garbage bag filled with his clothes around his shoulder and the subplot of him coming back to win is created. Rabbit goes home after the battle and reveals his living conditions to the viewer. His family, which consists of his single mother and younger sister, lives in the 8 Mile Road trailer park. It is in an unkempt area with beat-up parked cars surrounding the trailers. At a later point in the film, it is revealed that family is on the verge of being evicted from their trailer because his mother, who is jobless, has been struggling to find a source of income. Thus, although they are a white family, they do not live up to the social expectations that whites are a family of four, own a house, established, have jobs and do not worry about making ends meet. This also shows how his mother fits the gender role of a woman because she does not work and depends on others for help.
Rabbit’s living conditions hugely contrast to his white male friend, Cheddar. Cheddar seems to be Rabbit’s only white male friend. Similar to Rabbit, he wears oversize clothes and tries to fit in. However, Cheddar and his family live up to social expectation by living in a house as opposed to Rabbit and his family who live in a trailer. His house is well kept and nicely decorated. It also has a television set which may hint that his family is not
…show more content…
The subplot of him emerging as victorious is brought up again by one of his African American friends and entourage members, Future. Future encourages him to battle again and says “once they hear you, it won 't matter what color you are.” He reiterates the issue of race, but states it will disappear after Rabbit becomes victorious among the black rappers he battles against. Also within this scene, a gender issue emerges. For instance, Rabbit tells Future how his mother is dating Greg who is a man they went to high school with. It bothers Rabbit and makes him feel emasculated because him and Greg are close in age, he is having sex with his mother and there is not anything he could to prevent
One of the first things readers acknowledge when it comes to the White Rabbit is his opening dialogue, “Oh Dear! Oh Dear! I shall be too late” (Carroll). Throughout Carroll’s work, the White Rabbit often mentions that he is running late. On my occasions, those who have GAD have a hard time with time management. During one of the first encounters with the White Rabbit, it is clear that he is on edge and worried about something. Being written as a rabbit, the White Rabbit is already a personification of GAD. Rabbits are twitchy, have rapid heartbeats, and are easily startled. These are all symptoms of having generalized anxiety disorder. Upon their first face to face encounter, the White Rabbit angrily mistakes Alice for his housemaid, “Why, Mary Ann, what are you doing out here? Run home this moment…” (Carroll). Mistaking Alice for another person shows the White Rabbit’s confusion and lack of concentration. Once Alice gets to the White Rabbit’s house, however, she foolishly takes the cakes and grows much too large to fit comfortably inside. The White Rabbit’s reaction to giant Alice in his house also resonates with symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. He violently tries to remove her from his home by any means necessary. “We must burn the house down,” (Carroll) is an excellent example of the White Rabbit jumping to unnecessary conclusions of how to get giant Alice out of his house. He is uncertain of what to do in order to return things to normal. Once Alice finds the garden she has been searching for, the White Rabbit is seen fulfilling his duties as the royal’s right hand man. While he is in this setting, he seems calmer because he is used to this
Richard Adams novel, Watership Down, is the account of a group of rabbits trip to search out a new location to inhabit. After escaping the Sandleford Warren because of one rabbit’s instincts, nearly a dozen rabbits cross virgin country. Along the way, they run across a few other warrens. These places exhibit a completely different way of living to the fleeing group. What they learn is vital when they develop their own warren. From these places they manage to collect some rabbits to increase their size once they reach a resting point at their final destination. Each of the places they encounter is set up differently. These warrens contain a distinct and unique social system, belief and leadership role.
The job of a screenplay is to establish many different aspects of a movie, including tone, dialog and narrative structure. A screenplay is a constant juggling act that must keep all of these aspects in balance, obviously there are some films that do this better than others. A rather unique film that handles each of these aspects well is writer/director Steve De Jarnatt’s Miracle Mile (1988). This film is truly one of a kind and how it pulls it off is something of a miracle. It’s the story of a man named Harry and a woman named Julie falling in love with one each other over the course of a day. Unfortunately the good times can’t last, as Harry misses their date and picks up a pay phone, only to discover that nuclear warfare is happening and he only has a certain amount of time to get out of the blast zone. De Jarnatt’s screenplay is very different, but it somehow works out beautiful and how it does
In the movie “Boyz in the Hood” director John Singleton, paints a clear image of the problems that happen very often in the African American communities. The movie deals with issues such as: the importance of a father in a young man’s life, the ongoing violence of black on black crime, and how black people are put in situations where they are put to fail and not succeed in life.
The opening sequence of the Rabbit Proof Fence introduces you to the Aboriginal people. The scene begins with white writing on a black background which informs us of the situation in Australia in 1931 and the effects it has had in Australia. This is followed by an aerial shot of Australia?s desert which is hot, vast, desolate and has no vegetation showing the audience the difficulty someone would have trying to travel across this desert. Subsequently Molly?s voice over begins, she tells us in simple sentences her story. There are subtitles because she talks in her native tongue to represent Phillip Noyce?s respect for the Aboriginals. The screen, after tilting across the land stops at the small rabbit proof fence, which gives the effect that there are only a few white people compared to the number of Aboriginals.
The movie Friday is a comedy drama released in 1995 starring Ice Cube (Craig) and Chris Tucker (Smokey) in the lead roles. (CITE) The film takes place in South Central Los Angeles during a 16 hour time period in the eventful lives of friends Craig and Smokey. After just being fired from his job, Craig decides to hang out with his friend Smokey, smoking marijuana and drinking on the front porch of his parents house. Things get interesting when Smokey brings Craig into a “little”, or rather not so little problem of his. Smokey owes local drug dealer Big Worm $200 on that Friday night by ten o'clock p.m. for smoking, rather than selling the marijuana that Big Worm gave to him, or else they'd both be killed. The movie details all the of the events in the 16 hour time period which led up to them eventually getting the $200 that they owe to Big Worm, and in turn saving their own lives. The film is full laughs brought on by comedic scenes throughout, especially due to the fact that African American characters are portrayed in a very stereotypical manner. It was evident that the common stereotypes of African American people in the early to mid 90's were fully supported by the film.
The culture in America has changed dramatically since the 1970s. As time goes on different events occur that will change the American culture forever. If people never stand up for what they believe in, the American culture may have never changed. Woman were not treated with the same respect in the 1970 's like they are treated today. Just before the 70s, the Civil Rights Movement supporters stood up and made history. The country was in the Vietnam War until the middle of the decade. There are great examples of the culture differences in the film The Longest Yard in 1974 compared to the remake in 2005. The United States of America 's culture is better today because of all the history that Americans made.
...e important events in Eminem’s life that had a great impact or effect in his successful career. So yeah Eminem had to deal with poverty and many other problems, but showed that you can do anything you want if you are determined and do not give up even if you are in the most messed up situation.
Although both these films have very different protagonist from one another, both protagonist have a similar mission. In Rabbit Proof Fence, the girls Molly, Daisy and Gracie are running for their lives having escaped the camp forcing the whites to use all their resources to get them back. While in
Our story centres around Donnie Darko a troubled teen previously diagnosed with schizophrenia and a history of violence who at 12 o’clock Sunday the 2nd of October 1988 is awoken by a mysterious voice following the voice he is confronted by an otherworldly 6 foot tall bunny rabbit named
Even with Big Walter and Mama’s joint efforts, they are not able to save their children from a life similar to their own. Here the concept of the American Dream is rejected because even with hard work, the Youngers aren’t able to reach economic prosperity due to the low status jobs limited to African-Americans. Big Walter and Mama’s dreams only become possible after the death of Big Walter; the insurance money that the Younger’s receive has the power to change their lives. But what does this say about the American Dream? In the play, Asagai states, “Then isn’t there something wrong in a house-- in a world--where all dreams, good or bad, must depend on the death” (Hansberry 135; Act 3, Sc. 1). Even now, the American Dream is still largely determined by race, and while the Youngers have the determination to fight and to prosper economically, they aren’t able to do so because of the strict limitations that are set in the form of racism and discrimination in order to keep African-Americans in a lower socioeconomic
Frank is one of the main characters in the story who surfaces in the movie as a man wearing a rabbit’s costume. He only appears to Donnie when Donnie takes the prescribed hallucinogenic medicine and goes to sleep and he begins to sleep walk. Rabbits are generally associated with the Easter Season when Jesus died on the cross and rose again in his rebirth. A rabbit’s foot is also a symbol that people refer to as a good luck charm and is evident in the first fifteen minutes of the story. The rabbit can also be a symbol of Donnie’s journey as he travels towards his destiny, and his reincarnation in what he discovers about himself and the world in which he lives.
4. Foreman, (2002). The Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip hop. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press.
The beginning of the music video it begins to show the viewers the streets of Detroit and it focuses in on the poverty of Detroit due to the economic problems it faced and how violence took over the streets where shootouts and robberies took place in neighborhoods. In the video it’s mostly dark outside or looks like a huge storm has just finished which represents tough times. Viewers are introduced to street signs of 8 mile, which is a huge a part of Eminem’s life. 8 miles is more than a street that marks the
The audience Sutter was aiming for are the people who are struggling in their life to show them that they can make a difference and overcome the obstacles they are currently facing. During an interview, Sutter told them that the script was originally written for Marshall Mathers, better known as the rapper “Eminem”. Marshall comes from a poor home being raised only by his mother and so he went through some of the same challenges as the character Billy Hope in the movie. Instead of boxing, Marshall decided to rap for a living to pay for bills and to take care of his