Miracle Mile

[DarkImbecile]

When Harry (Anthony Edwards, Zodiac, ER) meets Julie (Mare Winningham, Turner & Hooch) at the La Brea Tar Pits, it’s love at first sight. But when Harry’s alarm clock fails to go off, he misses their scheduled date by several hours. Alone on a street corner at four in the morning, he answers a ringing pay phone and picks up a garbled message that all-out nuclear war is set to begin in an hour’s time. With the clock ticking and the city spiralling into chaos, can Harry somehow track down Julie and get them both to safety before Armageddon?

In 1983, American Film magazine called Miracle Mile one of the ten best unproduced screenplays, though Hollywood baulked at its idiosyncratic mix of black comedy, romance and nuclear holocaust. Years later, writer Steve De Jarnatt (Cherry 2000) bought back the rights to his own script and in 1988 made the film on his own terms. The result is a madcap end-of-the-world adventure like no other, as hilarious as it is disturbing, featuring scintillating views of nocturnal LA and a hypnotic score by Tangerine Dream.

CONTENTS

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
• Original English stereo soundtrack (lossless on the Blu-ray Disc)
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
• New video interview with writer/director Steve De Jarnatt
• Audio commentary by Steve De Jarnatt
• Audio commentary by Steve De Jarnatt, cinematographer Theo van de Sande and production designer Chris Horner
• Julie & Harry, an interview with actors Mare Winningham and Anthony Edwards
• Supporting cast and crew reunion featurette
• The Music of Tangerine Dream, an interview with co-composer Paul Haslinger
• Deleted scenes and outtakes
• Rubiaux Rising, a short story read by Steve De Jarnatt
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jacey

[knives]

There are a lot of these nuclear disaster films floating around in the ‘80s and this has to be one of if not the best of them. Setting the foreground as the cutest and most sincere of romcoms, though the score knows better and tries to warn us, really helps ensure the success.

[jazzo]

I agree wholeheartedly, Knives. I remember going to see this at a local independent theatre when it was released, knowing absolutely nothing about it, and the the film left high school-aged jazzo breathless.

I've had a series of MIRACLE MILE arguments with certain friends over the years, and have never been able to convince them of its virtues. But, like Bob Balaban's similar independently-spirited cannibal picture, PARENTS (that also seemed to manifest out of nowhere from some strange creative mist), if its rhythms and atmosphere get their hooks into you, then you love it. And if you love it, you love it forever.

MIRACLE MILE and AFTER HOURS are sister films to me, not just in the way they both explore alienation and the need for connection within a huge city (even if it means going through the seven circles of hell to get it), but also in the ambition of their filmmakers, and what they were able to sneak through their respective (smallish) studio systems, and accomplish with their modest budgets. It's astonishing to me that Steve De Jarnatt stopped making films after this. How could any producer not be impressed with what's physically and emotionally onscreen, no matter how unsuccessful it was at the box office?

I suggest a read of Walter Chaw's beautiful monograph on the film: https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/walter- ... pageSize=4

[beamish14]

It's astonishing to me that Steve De Jarnatt stopped making films after this. How could any producer not be impressed with what's physically and emotionally onscreen, no matter how unsuccessful it was at the box office.

Cinema's loss is academia and literature's gain. His recently published short story collection is just wonderful and he's taught at UCLA
off and on for quite a while.

This film has the most incredible genesis ever, having begun life as the original concept for Twilight Zone: The Movie and De Jarnatt having to buy back his own script with his proceeds from movies like Strange Brew (which he nearly directed).

[Orlac]

It's a marvellous film, and one of Tangerine Dream's last great soundtracks.

[L.A.]

I think the German Blu-ray from Turbine Media is possibly the best release available at the moment.

[Rayon Vert]

Just watching the extras for this. Kind of cute to learn that the leads, Anthony Edwards and Mare Winningham, met again in 2015 to do the extras for the Kino Lorber release and sparks flew. They've been together since and married in 2021.

[beamish14]

Just watching the extras for this. Kind of cute to learn that the leads, Anthony Edwards and Mare Winningham, met again in 2015 to do the extras for the Kino Lorber release and sparks flew. They've been together since and married in 2021.

I seldom double dip with discs, even for 4K releases, but I will with this. Kino’s upcoming re-release is going to have De Jarnatt’s student film Tarzana starring Timothy Carey, which is absolutely incredible, and I thought that music issues would prevent it from ever getting a commercial release