Miracle Mile (film)

Miracle Mile
Theatrical release poster
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
Editing by	Stephen Semel Kathie Weaver
Distributed by	Hemdale Film Corporation
Release date(s)	September 11, 1988 (1988-09-11) (Toronto Film Festival)
Running time	87 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$3,700,000
Box office	$1,145,404

Miracle Mile is a 1988 apocalyptic thriller cult film^[1] written and 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.^[2] The movie was well received by critics, but bombed at the box office. Despite the poor box office performance, the movie has attracted a cult following.

Plot

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 fifty minutes. He searches frantically for Julie, helped and hindered by various strangers, who are initially unaware of the impending apocalypse. Some of the strangers they meet arrange for a helicopter to ferry a few to the airport, to catch a plane to Antarctica and safety. Harry makes arrangements with a pilot to meet them at the top of the building.

As the story reaches a climax, the news of the nuclear exchange breaks, and Los Angeles descends into violent chaos. Harry worries that he may be the cause of an unnecessary panic.

They reach the top of the building where the helicopter is supposed to be waiting to find the pad empty. After a missile streaks across the sky, confirming the war is real, the helicopter returns with the pilot badly wounded but fulfilling his promise to come back for them. After they lift off from the roof, three nuclear missiles hit L.A. and the EMP from the detonations causes the copter to crash into the La Brea Tar Pits.

As the copter sinks and the cabin fills with water, Harry tries to comfort Julie by saying someday they will be found and they will probably be put in a museum, or maybe they will take a direct hit and be turned into diamonds. Julie seems to take some hope in this, and the movie fades out as the water fills the compartment. A final explosion seems to imply a direct hit has taken place.

Cast

• Anthony Edwards as Harry Washello
• Mare Winningham as Julie Peters
• John Agar as Ivan Peters
• Lou Hancock as Lucy Peters
• Mykelti Williamson as Wilson
• Kelly Jo Minter as Charlotta
• Kurt Fuller as Gerstead
• Denise Crosby as Landa
• Robert DoQui as Fred the Cook
• O-Lan Jones as Waitress
• Claude Earl Jones as Harlan
• Alan Rosenberg as Mike
• Danny De La Paz as Transvestite
• Earl Boen as Drunk Man in Diner
• Diane Delano as Stewardess
• Edward Bunker as Nightwatchman

Production

Before Miracle Mile was made, its production had been legendary in Hollywood for ten years.^[3] In 1983, it had been chosen by American Film magazine as one of the ten best unmade screenplays.^[3] 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.^[3]

Miracle Mile spent three years in production limbo until De Jarnatt optioned it himself, buying the script for $25,000.^[3] He rewrote it and the studio offered him $400,000 to buy it back. He turned them down.^[3] 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."^[3] John Daly of Hemdale Films gave De Jarnatt $3.7 million to make the film.

Filming locations

The following locations in Los Angeles were used in this film: Johnie's Coffee Shop; La Brea Tar Pits; Miracle Mile District; Pan-Pacific Auditorium in the Fairfax District; Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, California.

Critical reception

Miracle Mile received generally positive reviews among critics. Roger Ebert praised the film, claiming it had a "diabolical effectiveness" and a sense of "real terror".^[4] 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".^[5] Stephen Holden, in The New York Times wrote, "As Harry and Julie, Mr. Edwards and Ms. Winningham make an unusually refreshing pair".^[6] 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".^[7] British film and television critic Charlie Brooker, in an article for the BAFTA website written in September 2008 awarded Miracle Mile the honor of having the "Biggest Lurch of Tone" of any film he had ever seen.^[8]

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 86% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on twenty-one reviews.^[9]

Awards

Wins

• Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival: Best Special Effects; 1989.

Nominations

• Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival: Nominated, Best Film, Steve De Jarnatt; 1989
• Sundance Film Festival: Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic, Steve De Jarnatt; 1989.
• Independent Spirit Awards: Best Screenplay, Steve De Jarnatt; Best Supporting Female, Mare Winningham; 1990

References

1. ^ Tangerine Dream, Soundtrack to Miracle Mile - review by Joe McGlinchey. Retrieved on 2-13-2009
2. ^ Miracle Mile at the Internet Movie Database
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Richardson, John H (May 28, 1989). "Miracle Mile Made with Slowly Measured Steps". St. Petersburg Times. 
4. ^ Ebert, Roger (June 9, 1989). "Miracle Mile". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19890609/REVIEWS/906090302/1023. Retrieved 2010-03-03. 
5. ^ Kempley, Rita (June 14, 1989). "Miracle Mile to Nowhere". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/miraclemilerkempley_a09fc6.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-03. 
6. ^ Holden, Stephen (May 19, 1989). "Waiting in California for the next Big Bang". The New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=950DE3DC143AF93AA25756C0A96F948260. Retrieved 2010-03-03. 
7. ^ Carr, Jay (June 9, 1989). "Miracle Mile". Boston Globe. 
8. ^ Charlie Brooker, Six of the Best, September 15, 2008.
9. ^ Miracle Mile at Rotten Tomatoes. Last accessed: January 24, 2008.

External links

• Miracle Mile at the Internet Movie Database
• Miracle Mile soundtrack sample by Tangerine Dream at You Tube