Each week last summer, we flipped the calendar back thirty years to spotlight a movie that was new and exciting back in...the Summer of '78. In the last installment, I made this vow: "Thanks for joining us for the Summer of ’78! If we’re all still alive a year from now, tune in for the Summer of ’89!"
Well, we're still alive, but our venue is gasping its final breaths as we enter this last week in Screengrab history. But I'm a man of my word! I was looking forward to spending this summer re-evaluating the Summer of '89, which I spent driving across country with a friend, seeing America...and seeing a lot of movies. Anytime the weather turned against us, or we just couldn't bear the thought of spending another second cramped inside our tiny Subaru, we'd hit the multiplex in whatever town we happened to be in and spend the day sneaking from theater to theater, killing six to eight hours at a pop. So as it turned out, I saw an awful lot of movies in the summer of '89 (and a lot of awful movies). Obviously, I won't get the chance to fulfill my obligation here, but following this inaugural Screengrab installment of Summer of '89, you can catch new episodes every Monday at my blog, conveniently entitled Scott Von Doviak, at least until I can come up with something snappier.
As it happens, I did not see this week's movie upon its release in 1989, which gives me something in common with almost everyone else in America. I've seen it now, however, so let's kick this sucker off with...
Miracle Mile
Release Date: May 19, 1989
Cast: Anthony Edwards, Mare Winningham, Mykelti Williamson, Robert Doqui, Denise Crosby
The Buzz: If a nuclear bomb drops on Los Angeles in the middle of the night, does anyone hear it? If a movie about such an occurence is released with no fanfare, does anybody see it?
Keywords: Nuclear War, Phone, Real Time, End of the World, Person on Fire
The Plot: The opening minutes of Miracle Mile play like a light romantic comedy - When Harry Met Julie. Harry is played by young Anthony Edwards, years before signing on for his endless ER shift, while Julie is played by Mare Winningham in a haircut that suggests she doesn't actually like boys. But it turns out she does like Harry, a trombone-playing goofball who wins her over with his aw-shucks ways. Their romance begins at the La Brea Tar Pits and never leaves the otherwise sterile stretch of L.A. that gives the movie its title. The only other colorful locale to be found is Johnie's Coffee Shop, the Space Age diner familiar from Reservoir Dogs and other films, which is where Julie works as a waitress. Harry plans to meet her when her shift ends, but oversleeps when his alarm clock fails to go off due to a power outage. By the time he makes it to the diner, she's already gone...and things only get worse when he answers a ringing pay phone and learns that the United States has launched a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, with the return fire expected in little over an hour. Now Harry must track down Julie and try to escape the city before the bombs begin to fall.
The Test of Time: Miracle Mile has enjoyed a growing reputation as an overlooked gem ever since it was barely released twenty years ago. Writer/director Steve De Jarnatt (who has never had another opportunity to direct a feature, although he's kept busy in television) doesn't quite pull off a seamless transition between the early, frothy rom-com scenes, the middle section focusing on the diner and its somewhat cartoonish denizens (including Denise Crosby, hoisting a mobile phone the size of a breadbox), and the later, horrific events. In a way, though, that's the point: the way impending extinction completely obliterates any sense of normalcy. De Jarnatt does bring a palpable eerieness to the pre-dawn scenes, as the sleeping city gives way to chaos. And he has the Hooksexup to follow through on his premise, much to the dismay of anyone hoping for love-conquers-all to win out...which is not to say there is no romance to be found as humanity sinks back into the primordial ooze. Although more than a bit dated, with its state-of-the-80s pink neon visuals, Miracle Mile holds up as a worthy entry in the last-night-on-earth genre.
Quotable Quote: "Pal, it's after four in the morning. All of the helicopter pilot bars are closed."
2009 Equivalent: Our end-of-the-world movie is Roland Emmerich's upcoming 2012, which promises to be a whole lot bigger, louder and dumber.