Miracle Mile (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Miracle Mile | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Steve De Jarnatt |
| Produced by | John Daly Derek Gibson |
| Written by | Steve De Jarnatt |
| Starring | Anthony Edwards Mare Winningham Denise Crosby Mykelti Williamson |
| Music by | Tangerine Dream |
| Cinematography | Theo van de Sande Dennis Weaver |
| Editing by | Stephen Semel Kathie Weaver |
| Distributed by | Hemdale Film |
| Release date(s) | September 11, 1988 (Toronto Film Festival) |
| Running time | 87 minutes |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3,700,000 million |
| Gross revenue | $1,145,404 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Miracle Mile is a 1988 thriller film directed by Steve De Jarnatt, and starring Anthony Edwards and Mare Winningham that takes place mostly in real time. It is named after the Miracle Mile neighborhood of Los Angeles, where most of the action takes place.
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[edit] Synopsis
The film takes place in a single day and night, beginning as the two main characters, Harry (Anthony Edwards) and Julie (Mare Winningham), meet and are immediately attracted to each other. They make a date for later in the evening, but fail to meet due to a quirk of fate. While they are apart, Harry receives a wrong-number phone call, and is told that, unbeknownst to everyone else, nuclear war is about to break out in seventy minutes. He searches frantically for Julie, helped and hindered by various strangers, who are initially unaware of the impending apocalypse.
As the story reaches a climax, the news of the nuclear exchange breaks, and Los Angeles descends into violent panic. The central characters question whether they may have created the rumors, and if the war is really happening; but it is. The final scenes graphically depict the arrival of nuclear missiles. After attempting to flee in a helicopter, the two protagonists die in the La Brea Tar Pits where the chopper crashes, following a detonation. They are fated to become fossils.
[edit] Production
Before Miracle Mile was made, its production had been legendary in Hollywood for ten years.[1] In 1983, it had been chosen by American Film magazine as one of the ten best unmade screenplays.[1] Steve De Jarnatt wrote it just out of the American Film Institute for Warner Brothers with the hope of directing it as well. The studio wanted to make it on a bigger scale and did not want to entrust the project with a first-time director like De Jarnatt.[1]
Miracle Mile spent three years in production limbo until De Jarnatt optioned it himself, buying the script for $25,000.[1] He rewrote it and the studio offered him $400,000 to buy it back. He turned them down.[1] When he shopped it around to other studios, they balked at the mix of romance and nuclear war and the film's downbeat ending. This is what drew Anthony Edwards to the script as he remembers, "It scared the hell out of me. It really made me angry too...I just couldn't believe that somebody had written this."[1] John Daly of Hemdale Films gave De Jarnatt $3.7 million to make the film.
[edit] Reception
Miracle Mile received mixed reviews among critics. In her review for the Washington Post, Rita Kempley wrote, "It seems he's (De Jarnatt) not committed to his story or his characters, but to the idea that he is saying something profound - which he isn't."[2] Stephen Holden, in the New York Times wrote, "As Harry and Julie, Mr. Edwards and Ms. Winningham make an unusually refreshing pair."[3] In his review for the Boston Globe, Jay Carr called it, "a messy film, but it's got energy, urgency, conviction and heat and you won't soon forget it."[4]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f Richardson, John H. "Miracle Mile Made with Slowly Measured Steps", St. Petersburg Times, May 28, 1989.
- ^ Kempley, Rita. "Miracle Mile to Nowhere", Washington Post, June 14, 1989.
- ^ Holden, Stephen. "Waiting in California for the next Big Bang", New York Times, May 19, 1989.
- ^ Carr, Jay. "Miracle Mile", Boston Globe, June 9, 1989.
