Review: 8MM (1999)

People in the Movie:  Nicholas Cage (Con Air, Gone in 60 Seconds, National Treasure), Joaquin Phoenix (Signs, Walk the Line)

Director: Joel Schumacher

Pigeonhole: Drama / Mystery / Suspense

The Basics: A recent widow named Mrs. Christian discovers an 8mm film in her dead husband’s safe that depicts a young girl being murdered by a man in a black leather mask, and it does not appear to be staged.  She hires private investigator Tom Welles (Cage) to discover if the film is an authentic “snuff-film”.  Welles, with the help of an adult book store clerk named Max Christmas (Phoenix), delves into the dark, disturbing world of underground pornography to locate the people who created the film and what really happened to the girl.  When it is over, he may have wished he hadn’t taken the case. 

Recommendation: This is an unsettling movie to watch due to the subject matter.  It does not come off as glamorous, and there is no Hollywood ending.  It is a very well done film that is believable, and that is why I would caution against anyone who might not be comfortable with the topics I have mentioned.  ‘R’ rating is for violence, language, sexuality (as in pornographic material), and subject matter.

My Take: This, as I noted, is a very good film, the only thing that kept it from being ‘excellent’ was the ending, which I will get to shortly.  I would note that 8MM, in my opinion, is one of Cage’s best acted roles.   

**spoiler alert** Welles starts off by attempting to identify the victim.  With a little research into missing person’s cases, he discovers the girl’s name was Mary Ann Mathews.  He then travels to speak to Janet Mathews, Mary Ann’s mother, about what may have happened to her.  After a brief examination of Mary Ann’s room, and reading a diary entry about going to Hollywood, Welles heads to California.

Working the angle of how the film was made, Welles goes to an adult video store and questions Max about snuff films.  Max attempts to warn Welles off about continuing this case and what they might “see”, but deciding to persist, the two then proceed to track leads into the world of underground pornography.  Very much like Dante’s Inferno the deeper they go, the worse it gets. 

They finally come across Eddie Poole (James Gandolfini), a slimy talent recruiter for porn movies, who eventually leads them to an equally shady director named Dino Velvet.  We soon learn that Velvet may have produced the 8mm film.  Welles, attempting to set up a “sting” of sorts, tells Poole he wants to finance Velvet to make a film with the man who was in the original 8mm, who is being called “Machine”.  The meeting is set up, and Welles decides to go in alone, without Max.  Velvet, Poole, and Machine all show up, but Welles’ plan quickly crumbles as Mrs. Christian’s attorney steps out of a car, too.  The light bulb takes the final proverbial twist, and we learn that the film is, in fact, authentic, that Mr. Christian had his attorney commission the film with Velvet– and now Welles’ life in danger.  Velvet has Machine pull a bloodied Max out of their car, who they threaten to kill if Welles does not turn over the original 8mm film to them.  Welles hands it over, and they destroy it, but then promptly kill Max, as well.  And here is where the movie steps a little out of bounds…

The bad guys are about to kill Welles when he informs them that Christian paid 1 million dollars to have the snuff film made – most of which the attorney obviously pocketed himself, and subsequently infuriating Poole, Machine, and Velvet.  The group begins fight amongst themselves and guns are pulled; Velvet and the attorney end up dead, Poole escapes, and Welles hurts Machine, but he also gets away.  Now in “revenge mode” Welles hunts down Poole, and quickly calls Janet asking permission to kill him.  She agrees.  He also locates Machine, and before killing him as well, he unmasks a very plain looking middle aged guy with glasses – meant to contrast what we might have expected in our minds.  Of course, the ultimate irony is that Welles is killing these men with more hatred and violence in his heart than how Mary Ann’s murder happened.   

Starting from the aforementioned meeting through Tom killing Machine, 8mm was at times just slightly to the side “not so believable”, in my opinion.  This segment felt somewhat disjointed from the rest of the movie, and almost appeared like the direction was to try to take it to a slam-bang Hollywood ending, but could not reconcile how to do that with all the elements on the table.  I will note that Cage did a very good job and stayed within the Welles character through to the end.

Final Thought:  By the conclusion of the movie, everyone minus Tom and Janet that had any knowledge of the 8mm snuff film is dead.  Mrs. Christian committed suicide, leaving payments for Tom and Mrs. Mathews, and a written apology.  It was an extremely melancholy ending to this film, as Tom ponders all that he has seen and done in the past few weeks.  This is one of the reasons I escalate 8MM beyond a typical police style procedural/investigation story; because there were consequences for all the parties, and because the film was believable enough to make me want to look a little more suspiciously at people, in general, and what secret activities they could be involved in.