8 Mile: a generational divide: they're not playing our song - Arts & Culture - Movie Review

Somebody said you know we are living in end times when the best golfer is black and the best rapper is white. A fierce battle rages whether Eminem is the best rapper or not, but I am here to testify that 8 Mile--a huge box-office smash six months ago, now on video/DVD--is worth a look.

Right off the bat, I must declare myself. This is not only not my music but it is a prime example of pop music's degeneration in the past 20 years. I know, I know--I am old school but my years as a teacher and as a parent made me open to new currents in music, much of it to my edification. But this turgid, repetitive and vulgar witch's brew will go into history's delete bins as fast as that saccharine dreck you put in your coffee this morning. I am talking, of course, about Celine Dion's music.

People who grew tip with Rodgers and Hammerstein and latterly, Henry Mancini o, Michelle Legrand, will despise this rhythmic pastiche for the one good reason first enunciated by the single most influential artist of the 20th century, Louis Armstrong. Satchelmouth's advice to every generation was the same: "Never forget the melody." Hip hop music reminds me of the Muppet Zoot who introduced a character called Radar in his band. Now the latter's sole function was to warn the other cats in the band when they even got close to a melody! Hip hop is not melodious. It is music for our time: disjointed, alienated, full of rage and anger, but it does cohere, if you understand this important caveat.

Now every generation has their dark prince, their fallen ikon. The 50s had Elvis, the 80's Kurt Cobain and now there is the rapper everybody loves to hate--Eminem (his real name is Marshall Mathers, get it ... M and M). Mather's music has been known to be misogynist, homophobic, full of bile and anger ... and that's when he's feeling good! But it is authentic and this critic, who swoons over Lorenz Hart's allusions to classical Greek and Cole Porter's witty cultural references, not to mention Jerome Kern's gorgeous melodies, liked this movie. And I liked Eminem, not only because he's a funny, clever rapper, but because he's come through a lot. And from what I hear, the brother's spirit is intact. He seems to be over his juvenile stage, and in real life, is a caring single parent.

8 Mile Road, the boundary between white and black inner city Detroit, honestly reflects the broken and alienated life in a kind of ghetto poetry. It is true that Eminem could be described as "trailer park." His mother, who has sued him for his portrait of her, was a bingo-playing, single, welfare morn. His father disappeared after six months and Mathers grew up in that desolate, burned out part of Detroit. Wouldn't you be angry? I will not use the derogatory appellation "white trash," simply because God doesn't make trash and Mather's colour blind friendships and his survival skills, demand our admiration and respect.

8 Mile is an honest and interesting film that I recommend. I also must warn you that it is rated R for probably good reasons. Years ago, when jazz icon, Miles Davis, released his autobiography, some wag said that if you took out all the references to intercourse, the book would be half its size ... and yeah, 8 Mile would be twice as short.

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