The Jericho Mile

After cutting his teeth on documentaries in the early 1970s, Michael Mann moved to Hollywood and planned “to make it big in ninety days,” but found that “for two years I couldn’t get arrested.” In the process of learning how to write screenplays over two years, he came to the attention of the Robert Lewin, who had been a screenwriter for popular television shows like Rawhide and Mission: Impossible and was now the story editor on Starsky and Hutch. Lewin taught him about story structure and had Mann working as an assistant story editor. He would end up writing the first four episodes of the show and it became a huge success.

His run on Starsky and Hutch led to a stint on the T.V. show, Police Story, which was run by playwright Liam O'Brien and included famous crime writer, Joseph Wambaugh (who wrote The Onion Field) as a contributor. Each episode was based on a real event, working with the policeman whose story it was based on. Mann "learned a lot about writing and about working with real guys." Working on Police Story continued Mann's fascination with journalism and performing detailed research on a given project.

Mann's writing received strong critical notices and was a great learning experience. The success from writing led to him directing an episode of Police Woman and an opportunity to develop his own weekly T.V. series, Vegas (1978). However, the network wanted to water down the series and Mann clashed with director Richard Lang over the direction that the show was to take so he left after writing the pilot.

Mann’s T.V. work brought him to the attention of producer Tim Zinnemann and actor Dustin Hoffman who hired him to adapt ex-convict Edward Bunker’s novel, No Beast So Fierce. Mann spent three months conducting first-hand research at Folsom State Penitentiary in California. His work would go uncredited and eventually be made into the gritty crime film, Straight Time (1978).

Mann's success in television gave him the confidence to ask ABC for a shot at directing a film. He set up a made-for-T.V. movie called Swan Song about a skier but the project was delayed when its star, David Soul, needed a year to recover from a spinal injury. The head of ABC television’s Movie of the Week sent Mann a prison-themed teleplay written by Patrick J. Nolan. Mann extensively rewrote it, incorporating his research from Folsom and the result was a made-for-TV movie called The Jericho Mile (1979).

The film opens with a montage of prison life in almost documentary fashion to an instrumental version of the Rolling Stones song “Sympathy for the Devil.” Mann really gives a flavor of the different kinds of prisoners and the gangs they belong to via a sports writer who interviews someone (Roger E. Mosley) from the Black Brotherhood and a Latino gang member who brags about his handball skills all the while Dr. D (Brian Dennehy), the leader of a white supremacist gang, deals drugs. Mann shows how these various gangs interact with each other with the fascination of an anthropologist. He immediately captures the sights and sounds of life on the yard and then takes us inside to show what life is like among the cellblocks.

The film’s protagonist is an inmate by the name of Larry “Rain” Murphy (Peter Strauss) who is serving a life term in Folsom for shooting and killing his father for raping his stepsister. He spends his yard time running laps. He lives a Spartan existence with no creature comforts – just plain white walls, which anticipates the protagonist in Mann’s later film, Blackhat (2015). Much like that character, Murphy even works out in his cell. His entire focus is on running.

In contrast, R.C. Stiles (Richard Lawson), the African-American man in the cell next to Murphy, has his walls covered with photographs of loved ones and receives in the mail one of his newborn baby girl. He’s gregarious and chatty while Murphy internalizes and says little. The next day, Murphy is out on the yard again, only this time the prison officials take an interest and discover that he is running close to a four-minute mile.

Like many Mann protagonists, Murphy has a single-minded obsession that drives him, which is running. Like Neil McCauley in Heat (1995), Murphy keeps to himself, developing no attachments to anyone and he adheres to same mentality that ex-con Frank espouses in Thief (1981), but runs into trouble when, against his better judgment, befriends Stiles and is dragged into the man’s problem.

Mann shows how deals are made among the inmates through favors. In order to speed up his next conjugal visit with his wife, Stiles makes a deal with Dr. D, which upsets the Black Brotherhood who feel that Stiles is betraying his race. This understandably creates tension between Murphy and Stiles, causing the former to lose a bit of his focus.

Meanwhile, the prison warden (Billy Green Bush) brings in a state track and field coach (Ed Lauter) from a Sacramento college who has Murphy run against three of his best athletes. Incredibly, Murphy beats them all, impressing the coach. The powers that be want him to run in the upcoming Olympic trials, but he turns them down. For him, it would be a cruel taste of the outside world and he knows that the rest of his life will be spent in prison. Of course, Dr. D’s favor has strings attached and once Stiles realizes what they are he becomes outraged. One gets the uneasy feeling that things are not going to end well for him.

Peter Strauss not only looks the part – he’s in phenomenal shape with the lean, muscular build of a runner – but also embodies it by portraying a self-made man who survives prison life through his running. It defines who he is while providing him with a day-to-day structure. He delivers an intense performance, picking his moments to explode with anger and then dialing it back to a simmer, like the fantastic monologue he delivers when Murphy explains to the prison doctor (Geoffrey Lewis) why he’s serving a life sentence. Strauss delivers his dialogue with heartfelt emotion and it’s hard not to get caught up in his character’s dream of becoming one of the best runners. The actor demonstrates an incredible commitment to the role, setting the standard for every subsequent lead actor in future Mann films.

The always-watchable Brian Dennehy is good as the smooth-talking Dr. D whose gang holds slight control over the prison population. He has a smiling façade but behind it is a lot of menace, especially when someone crosses him and threatens his drug trade. Richard Lawson is also good as the contrast to Strauss’ inmate. He instills an infectious streak of hope in Stiles who looks forward to being reunited with his family but this also gives him a lot to lose. He ultimately plays a tragic character, but one that has a profound effect on Murphy.

There are some truly powerful moments in The Jericho Mile, like when Murphy sends a message to Dr. D by burning the man’s drug money in the prison yard in front of everyone, but the most emotionally moving one is Murphy’s climactic run at the end of the film. The style of The Jericho Mile is quite crude compared to Mann’s future films as he adopts a more naturalistic look from his documentary work and it fits the subject matter. Like other Mann films, this one has an ear for distinctive lingo as it features authentic prison-speak. It’s not just what these men say but how they say it that makes it so believable. It didn’t hurt that Mann was allowed to shoot scenes in Folsom and even used real inmates as extras, which only lends to the film’s authenticity.

By the end of The Jericho Mile, Murphy stays true to himself even if it means he is unable to run in the big race. He chooses to live life on his own terms, refusing to compromise to the powers that be. At the end, Murphy may be in prison but to him as long as he is able to run he is free because he has nothing to prove to anyone but himself. This is symbolized by Murphy throwing away a stopwatch that he uses during training. It smashes on the ground. He doesn’t need to be constrained by record times or qualifying times – the only thing he has to beat is his own expectations.

Mann shot The Jericho Mile for only $60,000 and was told by the prison warden that there had been several individual stabbings – something that happened routinely and if a gang or race war were to occur, the film crew would have to leave. They wouldn’t be able to finish the film. Mann found a solution by casting 28 convicts in major roles and with Eddie Bunker’s help negotiated with all the prison gangs to have eight or nine of each group be in the film in exchange for no gang or race wars while they were there filming. He used film stock so that it was able to get a theatrical release in Europe. He won an Emmy for writing and a special Director’s Guild of America Award. After the film’s debut on ABC television, Mann received many offers to direct all kinds of feature films but turned them all down. He went to United Artists to ask for an $8 million budget and the freedom to direct a screenplay that he wrote, entitled, Violent Streets, which went onto become Thief.

SOURCES

Appelo, Tim. “Legendary Newsman Mike Wallace ‘Detested’ The Insider, Michael Mann Reveals.” The Hollywood Insider. September 22, 2014.

Feeney, F.X. and Paul Duncan. Michael Mann. Taschen. 2006.

Steensland, Mark. Michael Mann: The Pocket Essential Guide. Matrix Digital Publishing. 2009.

Best Seller

Best Seller (1987) is an example of an odd convergence of talent with a screenplay penned by B-movie schlockmeister Larry (It’s Alive) Cohen, directed by journeyman crime film director John (Rolling Thunder) Flynn, and starring A-list talent like James Woods and Brian Dennehy. The key to enjoying this film is if you can swallow Cohen’s pulpy B-movie nonsense: a slick, corporate hitman convinces a hard-boiled police detective, and sometimes author, to write his memoirs. Once you get past this rather odd premise, Best Seller is quite enjoyable to watch, especially the interplay between the two lead actors who do their best to sell the film’s set-up.

James Woods had quite a run in the ‘80s with intense performances in films like Salvador (1986), Cop (1987) and True Believer (1989). He’s in fine form here as an ultra-confident killer. His best moments are when he tries to convince Brian Dennehy’s cop of some of the people he murdered for Kappa International. Woods brings his customary intensity to these scenes and a certain reptilian charm as a corporate assassin. Cleve really isn’t a nice guy – in fact’s he’s an arrogant prick – but Woods manages to get us to like him anyways because the actor is so charismatic in his own right.

Cleve’s crusade against his former corporate handlers is Larry Cohen’s blatant attack on corporate greed so prevalent in the “Greed is good” decade. Cohen wrote the screenplay, reportedly based loosely on Los Angeles cop Joseph Wambaugh, who tried to remain on the police force after several of his novels became best-sellers, in 1981 for Columbia Pictures but it was stuck in development hell due to a change in management. Orion Pictures eventually picked it up. Flynn rewrote Cohen’s script but was unable to get credit because he failed to prove to the Writers Guild of America that he had written 51% of it. The film was originally called Hard Cover but was changed to Best Seller in post-production as the former title didn’t test well with preview audiences. At the time of the film’s release, Cohen said, “I think the idea of being a killer for a major corporation was a little bizarre seven years ago. But time has caught up with the story when we’re reading all these stories about corruption in big business and corruption in Wall Street and the craziness in Washington.” Cleve’s ruthless tactics for Kappa International are meant to show just how far corporations are willing to go to exert their influence and power. It is this commentary that elevates Best Seller above your typical crime thriller – that, and the performances of Woods and Dennehy.

Best Seller was backed by Orion, an independent studio that pushed through all sorts of fascinating cinematic gems in the ‘80s, from efforts by auteurs like Woody Allen, to genre fare like RoboCop (1987). None of the major studios would’ve touched pulpy material like this and it’s a shame because a film like this has become scarce in the 2000s. The film does a good job delivering the requisite genre conventions under John Flynn’s workman-like direction and the television cop show production values only add to the tawdry B-movie vibe. Best Seller is certainly no masterpiece but it is a solid piece of entertainment and one of those underappreciated gems from the ‘80s waiting to be rediscovered.

Flynn’s no-nonsense, self-assured direction quickly establishes itself in the film’s prologue set in Los Angeles circa 1972 with an ill-fated bank heist. There are some nice touches in this sequence, like the lone bum sleeping on the steps of the building that is about to be robbed, and all of the crooks wearing Richard Nixon masks (anticipating the Ex-Presidents in Point Break). A cop named Dennis Meechum (Brian Dennehy) barely survives the heist (although, a couple of his fellow officers aren’t so lucky) and goes on to write a best-selling book about the incident.

Fifteen years later, Meechum has graduated to undercover work, despite being a high-profile author in his spare time (?!), busting bad guys. During one case he’s almost killed if not for the last minute intervention by an enigmatic stranger. We are given a little insight into this cop. He’s a widower raising a teenage daughter (Allison Balson), facing lots of unpaid bills, and has missed the last four deadlines on his latest book. He’s not quite the burn-out cop that Nick Nolte was known for playing in the 1980s but he’s stuck in a rut.

Meechum finally meets the mystery man known as Cleve (James Woods) who proceeds to pitch an idea for a new book about his life and the dirty work he did for tycoon David Madlock (David Shenar) and his company Kappa International. During one of their meetings, Cleve lays it all out for a skeptical Meechum: “Corporations deal in two things, period: assets and liabilities. I removed the liabilities and I provided some assets.” It turns out that Cleve was in on the bank heist back in ’72 and helped Madlock get his start. However, he’s had a falling out with the businessman and wants to expose his corrupt enterprise with Meechum’s help. And so, Cleve and Meechum form an uneasy partnership that is volatile at best as the hitman attempts to back-up his wild claims to the understandably wary cop.

Woods plays well off of Dennehy’s variation of the cop he portrayed in F/X (1986). He’s not as rumpled and still has his issues but there’s the same sharp intellect. Meechum plans to string Cleve along until he gives him enough evidence to bust him and get some much deserved payback for the ’72 bank job. While Woods is all wiry intensity, Dennehy is a solid, imposing figure with his stocky figure. Most of the film’s best scenes involve watching these two top notch actors bounce off each other.

This is evident in a scene where Cleve tries to pick up a woman at a bar and gets into it with her date only for the guy to be put in his place by Meechum. Just one look by Dennehy makes the man back down. I know I wouldn’t want to mess with someone like Dennehy. Cleve demonstrates his considerable willpower (and threshold for pain) and, in doing so, reveals a part of his past that sets off Meechum. The tension between the two characters in this scene is tangible and ups the ante in their relationship.

Best Seller was not well-received by critics to say the least. Chief among them was Roger Ebert who felt that the film was “light on plot, real light. It doesn’t have a compelling story at its center ... This is a case of a movie that has too much content, but not enough subject.” In his review for the Washington Post, Desson Howe found that the film’s premise was “flimsy” and only existed to support Wood’s “trademark intensity. He flits about the screen like an edgy sprite in search of a story.” The New York Times’ Vincent Canby was particularly harsh in his assessment of the film and felt that the filmmakers worked hard to create a “movie totally without suspense, humor, plausibility, charm, excitement, wit and substance.” The Globe and Mail’s Rick Groen was a little more forgiving in his review: “Thanks to a couple of gifted saviors, Best Seller is alive if not well; it breathes but doesn’t thrive.” Newsweek magazine’s David Ansen was even more generous in his review as he wrote, “watching Woods and Dennehy work out their tense, kinky love-hate relationship is a treat. An adroit, sardonic little thriller.” In his review for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Wilmington wrote, “Though the story seems insane, the actors ground it in psychological reality: Woods with sullen pouts, cold seductions and bursts of terrifyingly automatic violence; Dennehy with his watchful, steady-backed dependability.”

Best Seller was backed by Orion, an independent studio that pushed through all sorts of fascinating cinematic gems in the ‘80s, from efforts by auteurs like Woody Allen, to genre fare like RoboCop (1987). None of the major studios would’ve touched pulpy material like this and it’s a shame because a film like this has become scarce in the 2000s. The film does a good job delivering the requisite genre conventions under John Flynn’s workman-like direction and the television cop show production values only add to the tawdry B-movie vibe. Best Seller is certainly no masterpiece but it is a solid piece of entertainment and one of those underappreciated gems from the ‘80s waiting to be rediscovered.

SOURCES

Chartand, Harvey. “Interview with John Flynn.” Shock Cinema. 2005.

Van Gelder, Lawrence. “Why Best Seller is Plausible Now.” Los Angeles Times. October 1, 1987.

F/X

“Nobody cares about making movies about people anymore. All they care about is special effects,” says a character early on in F/X (1986), an exciting thriller that blurs the line between illusion and reality. With the rise in popularity of special effects and make-up effects-dominated genre films in the 1980s, like the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, audiences became fascinated with how this movie magic was achieved. Magazines like Cinefantastique, Fangoria and Starlog often featured interviews and profiles on the prominent figures that worked their magic behind-the-scenes, most notably Rick Baker, Rob Bottin and Tom Savini. So, it makes sense that a film about someone who worked in this profession would eventually be made during this decade.

The film begins, appropriately enough, with a cleverly orchestrated illusion. A man enters a restaurant on a rainy night. He takes one look around and proceeds to riddle the place with machine gun fire, indiscriminately shooting people until he finds his intended target: a beautiful blond-haired woman in a white dress. He viciously guns her down. Suddenly, everything stops and a man emerges to reveal that this has all been elaborately staged for a film. The man’s name is Roland “Rollie” Tyler (Bryan Brown) and he’s one of the best special effects artists in the movie business.

His realistic-looking work catches the eye of a man claiming to be a movie producer. He meets with Tyler the next day and reveals that his name is Lipton (Cliff De Young) and he actually works for the Justice Department. He wants Tyler to fake an assassination of notorious mob informant Nicholas DeFranco (Jerry Orbach) who is going into the Witness Protection and Relocation program. Tyler is going to be given very little time to pull it off and at first he isn’t too keen about going out of his comfort zone – after all, he deals in make-believe. However, Lipton and his superior Col. Eddie Mason (Mason Adams) appeal to Tyler’s vanity and tell him that they’re thinking of going with one of his rivals instead.

That does it. Well, that and the challenge of pulling off a staged assassination in public. However, Mason adds a further wrinkle to the job. In addition to doing all of the make-up effects, Tyler is also going to be the trigger man and paid $30,000 for his troubles. He has a bad feeling about the job but decides to do it anyway. The night of the staged hit is a repeat of the film’s opening sequence, which gives the scene an atmospheric neo-noir vibe. The fake assassination goes off without a hitch except that in the getaway car Lipton tries to kill Tyler (“No loose ends,” he tells Tyler). The special effects man narrowly escapes by forcing the car to crash.

Tyler calls Mason and tells him about what happened, to which the lawman reassures him and says that he’s going to send two men to pick him up. Tyler is almost killed again and realizes that he can’t trust his employers anymore. He takes refuge at his girlfriend’s apartment. Ellen (Diane Venora) is an actress who has appeared in some of his films. Pretty soon Tyler is on the run, using his skills as a special effects artist to get revenge. DeFranco’s murder is investigated by the police and this is where Lt. Leo McCarthy (Brian Dennehy) enters the picture. He busted DeFranco but never got the credit because his abrasive personality and his methods pissed people off in the police department. He wants in on the case and has a hunch that Tyler’s has something to do with the DeFranco shooting.

In the 1980s, it seemed like Brian Dennehy and Nick Nolte had a running competition on who could play more rumpled, burnt out cops that were loose cannons (although, I think that Nolte comes out on top). McCarthy’s introduction is even similar to that of Nolte’s in 48 Hrs. (1982): he’s woken up by a phone call from his partner Mickey (well-played by veteran character actor Joe Grifasi) and is a grumpy mess. Despite his appearance, McCarthy is a smart cop and pretty soon he begins to suspect a set-up, especially after talking with Lipton and Mason. He’s got a hunch, the quintessential gut instinct that all good movie cops get. Brian Dennehy has a lot of fun playing McCarthy with his own distinctive rumpled charm and sly wit, albeit with fierce convictions. For example, the scenes where he deals with a woman in the department who gets him information from a computer are fun and also provide more clues to the conspiracy that is unfolding. It also shows McCarthy doing real detective work as he begins to piece together the mystery. Dennehy certainly has an imposing presence – he’s a big, burly man but he also conveys an intelligence that those around him (especially his superiors) underestimate. He takes what could have been a stock stereotype and transforms it into something special and it’s a delight just to watch Dennehy do his thing whenever he’s on-screen.

Australian actor Bryan Brown does a good job as the innocent man who is set up and fights to clear his name. Initially, he portrays Tyler with just the right mix of prankster and a slight whiff of arrogance. The guy knows that’s he’s one of the best in his profession but as he becomes embroiled in this conspiracy he develops some humility. The film spends some time getting to know Tyler so that when he gets set up for murder we empathize with his plight. F/X was Brown’s calling card to Hollywood and he dabbled in a few high-profile gigs (Cocktail anyone?) before settling into respectable character actor roles and doing several films back in his native country, including, most recently, an appearance in Baz Luhrmann’s lavish epic Australia (2008).

Cliff De Young is quite good as the slightly abrasive and corrupt Lipton. He turns on the charm early on as he gains Tyler’s confidence and then embodies bureaucratic nastiness once Tyler has outlived his usefulness. Attentive viewers should spot Tom Noonan (Manhunter) in a small role as one of Mason’s henchmen. Plus, you get to see a pre-Law & Order Jerry Orbach play a bad guy. He has a nice bit where his character tells a bunch of Mason’s goons to do something and they ignore him until Mason tells them to do it. DeFranco still thinks he can order people around but he’s been reduced to an observer.

Director Robert Mandel does a nice job of showing off New York City as Tyler is chased all over town, which gives a real sense of place. It is refreshing to see actual city locations used instead of being doubled with Toronto (as would happen with the inferior sequel). He does a fine job of plugging the various thriller components into the film (the car chase, the fight sequence, the gun battle), demonstrating that he must’ve been taking good notes while watching films like The French Connection (1971). There is a refreshing messiness to many of the action sequences, like when Tyler escapes Lipton’s attempt to kill him, and even more so when an assassin tries to kill Tyler in his Ellen’s apartment. Tyler is not a trained combatant and has to literally fight desperately for his life, using whatever is within reach – a kettle, a toaster, an iron – to defeat his opponent. This roughness gives the sequence an unpredictable intensity that you might not have gotten from a more experienced action film director.

The origins of F/X lie in an unsolicited screenplay written by two novice writers, actor Gregory Fleeman and documentary filmmaker Robert T. Megginson. Producer Jack Wiener read their script, which they had submitted as a low-budget television movie, and felt that it should be made into a theatrical feature. Wiener and his co-producer Dodi Fayed hired Robert Mandel to direct. They did not want an action director because they were looking for someone that would bring a realistic touch and make the audience care about the main character. This project was a departure for Mandel who got his start in theater, directing off-Broadway productions of Chekov and Shakespeare. He eventually graduated to feature films with Independence Day (1983) and Touch and Go (1986), character-driven productions that were not commercial hits. With F/X, the director wanted to dispel the perception that he was a “soft, arty director.” Initially, Mandel was not impressed with the film’s script which he felt was not well-crafted but understood that it provided for “a lot of action and a lot of things I did not have under my belt.” He did his homework by studying chase scenes from Bullitt (1968), The French Connection and E.T. (1982) in preparation for the one in F/X.

A preview screening in the San Fernando Valley produced some of the best statistics Orion Pictures, which financed and distributed F/X, had seen in some time. A week before its release, a film industry screening went very well as did its premiere at the United States Film Festival (later known as the Sundance Film Festival). The film did well at the box office, grossing over $20 million in North America (well over its $10 million budget), but executives at Orion felt that it could have performed even better with a different title. One executive claimed that no one understood what the title meant and accepted it because that was what the producers wanted. Wiener admitted that they thought the two letters together would be "provocative" like MASH (1970) and admitted they had made a mistake.

F/X was well-received by film critics. Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "This movie takes a lot of delight in being more psychologically complex than it has to be. It contains fights and shootouts and big chase scenes, but they're all firmly centered on who the characters are and what they mean to one another.” In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby praised the look of the film, writing, "although the movie, which looks as if it had been made on an A-picture budget, has a lot of the zest one associates with special-effects-filled B-pictures.” The Globe and Mail’s Jay Scott wrote, “F/X is simply out to give a good time, which it does superbly.” In his review for the Washington Post, Paul Attanasio praised Brian Dennehy's performance: "Dennehy brings magic to the role – he's large, and he enlarges it. With his sly eyes and little can opener of a nose, his shoulders a yard wide, his hair massing in gray curls behind his ears, he dances through the movie like a mastodon in toe shoes." (I love that description!)

The success of F/X paved the way for a sequel in 1991 and a spin-off television series that ran from 1996 to 1998, but neither is as good as the original which still holds up as a smart, engaging thriller for adults with a wonderful performance by Dennehy and excellent use of New York locations. Even the clichéd elements are well done. It’s a thriller that actually spends time developing its characters so that we are invested in what happens to them. F/X is an enjoyable ride, one that is much better than you would expect. It is the cinematic equivalent of an engrossing page-turner, the kind of film that Hollywood used to be good at making but is now a rare species in this age of lackluster remakes and lame sequels.

SOURCES

Harmetz, Aljean. "F/X, A Suspense Film with a Mysterious Title." The New York Times. March 31, 1986.

Kearney, Jill. “Secrets of a Hot Director.” American Film. April 1986.