I had to read the script for this movie for uni a couple of weeks ago. All I knew was that it was about rapping and that Eminem was in it. It took me till half way through it before I was hooked big time. I’d never read a script before and was fascinated and intrigued by the whole process. Then I found this DVD at the op shop and I was going to buy it until I realised it was bootleg. I opened my big mouth, told the guy it was bootleg and even showed him what to look for, opened the box finding two discs, one is bootleg and the other is real. He gave me the whole kit and caboodle telling me he wouldn’t sell it now. I did buy a book though.
My thoughts about the script
Gritty, lots of swearing and not a lot of rap but there’s a reason for that. There’s a lot of sexism and racism in there, although some of it is rather disguised.
I learned a lot about rap, though. It turns out that there is such a thing as ‘freestyle rapping’ where you go up against an opponent and insult them in rap, with the audience voting as to who did the best. They have to make it up as they go along, in rhyme, in time with the DJ’s music and they only have 45 seconds! I’m in awe!
The movie
You know how we talk about the movies being different to the book? The script differs to the movie. They’ve kept the basic setting but they’ve changed his job and they’ve taken out most of the sex.
But in the movie we actually see the rapping. We see the rapping battles and it feels very real.
Behind the scenes
I watched behind the scenes as well. Apparently the crowd scenes in the rapping battles are people from that area. The producer/director or someone thought it might be a little boring for them so they decided to add in a couple of extra scenes and ran auditions for these scenes. In the extras we are given much of this footage, the people are incredibly good and I’m in awe, again. I could not do this rapping, just the rhyming is enough to leave me in tears.
Why is this disc bootleg?
Can’t tell you why people bootleg but they do, actually I lie as they probably do it for easy money. But there are some easy ways you can tell if you’re buying bootleg. Here’s a photo to illustrate what I’m saying.
Have a look at the list of subtitles here. I’ve never heard of a language called ‘Englitles’. Bootleggers are generally in a country where English isn’t their first language and there are likely to be translation issues such as these. There’s also a typo on the actual disc but I won’t show you that one.