Miracle Mile: Special Edition

Harry (Anthony Edwards) answers a ringing payphone. On the other line is a frantic voice, a young man who says he’s a soldier and World War III is set to begin in just a matter of hours. Nuclear war. Total annihilation. It’s not a matter of if, but when. Like all great, “What if?” stories, we begin to wonder ourselves, what would we do in the same situation? Would we dismiss the call as a prank or would we tell someone?

He decides on the latter, to go into the diner closest to the phone (the historic Johnie’s Diner in Los Angeles) and tells the up-all-nighters inside. It doesn’t take long for them to tell their friends, who tell their friends, who tell their friends and so on and so on until the entire city has caught wind of the story. Soon, the city is gripped with fear and panic, riots, and bloodshed in the streets. It isn’t until the very end that we know the truth of the call.

While the structure of civilized society begins to crumble, Harry is trying to escape the city with a woman he only met the day before, Julie (Mare Winningham). Catastrophe, calamity, and violence find them at every turn. In the midst of the madness and the violence, Harry and Julie’s love and affection for each other is the heart of the story. Miracle Mile is just as much a horrifying story about nuclear war, fear and violence as it is a story about the power of love. It manages to straddle the line and be as sweet and beautiful as it is panic-inducing.

The making of Miracle Mile is the stuff of Hollywood legend. Once upon a time, when the Twilight Zone movie was going to be a singular story instead of an anthology, Miracle Mile was the story they had in mind. The problem was that writer/director Steve De Jarnatt would have to compromise his vision he had in mind. So, he bought the screenplay back from the studio for $25,000 and took it to Hemdale Films for production.

While the story itself is fantastically realized, with a stacked cast to boot (Denise Crosby, Mykelti Williamson, Edward Bunker, Brian Thompson), what it gets right are the little details. It’s one of the seminal Los Angeles films, taking place in that magical time between late night and early morning when the normies are still all asleep and the streets are quiet. The rats fall from palm trees. The diners. This is one of those movies where Los Angeles feels like its real self, and not some idealized setting.

Sadly, Miracle Mile was not a hit at the box office, but the film that was made was De Jarnatt’s, on his own terms, and has, in the years that have followed its release, found an audience that has embraced and loved it. I had wanted to see the film for years, having read about it in a book about cult films through the ages—the story described sounded incredible, but for whatever reason never got around to it. One night, on a date with a woman who wound up being my wife years later, we were talking LA movies and she told me that when she was a kid. She said she saw this movie on Sunday afternoon network TV about a guy who answers a ringing payphone and hears word about the end of the world and the entire city goes crazy. She remembered it being such an odd, beautiful, scary little movie. I knew exactly which movie she was talking about, so we had a follow-up date where we watched it together.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
Miracle Mile’s second release on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber comes in an upgraded package from its predecessor. While the previous release had just the one disc in a standard case to house the feature film and its supplemental features, this latest release comes with two Blu-ray discs, a removable slipcover with brand-new art and reversible artwork inside the case. The reverse side features artwork from its previous release.

While I wish this release had been on a 4K UHD Blu-ray with HDR grading, I can’t bemoan the end-result. Miracle Mile looks incredible and this is easily the best its looked on home video. I owned the previous Blu-ray release and it was my opinion that release looked great, working with a 2K scan of a 35mm interpositive. For the purpose of this review, I began watching that version first, and then popped in this re-release, working with a 4K scan of its original 35mm camera negative. The difference was immediately clear. Color levels are timed better. Shadow levels are darker with less pulsating static noise. And the image itself is sharper, especially in wide shots. While this new version still has some dirt and scratches, it has been cleaned up considerably. What we’re left with is a stunning image rich in vibrant colors and a healthy amount of film grain on the presentation.

This release of Miracle Mile comes equipped with the same DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo mix as the 2015 release, employing the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy I’m fond of. Miracle Mile boasts one of the all-time great 80s synth scores courtesy of Tangerine Dream and boy does it shine in this mix. It’s loud in all the right places, with rich, warm bass. When the movie kicks into gear into madness, there are gunshots, explosions, screams and crashes. Through it all, dialogue never gets lost in the chaos. This is a great mix and wisely avoids unnecessary modification and tinkering.

Miracle Mile is positively lousy with special features, with some new ones making their way to these two discs and all legacy features from KLSC’s previous release making their way over. Fans of the film will have hours and hours of content to peruse, with multiple audio commentaries, multiple reunion featurettes, short films, interviews, deleted scenes, and outtakes.

• Audio Commentary - Writer/Director Steve De Jarnatt and Film Critic Walter Chaw
• Audio Commentary - Steve De Jarnatt, Cinematographer Theo van de Sande and Production Designer Chris Horner
• Audio Commentary - Janet Fitch and Matthew Spector
• Tarzana (HD 33:01) – Short film by Steve De Jarnatt
• Eat the Sun (HD 23:51) – Short film co-written and co-directed by De Jarnatt
• Grace for Grace (1:54:05 – Audio Only) - Audio Readings of Two Award-Winning Stories by Steve De Jarnatt
• Johnie’s Supporting Cast Reunion (HD 14:25)
• Johnie’s Supporting Cast Reunion - Part 2 (HD 24:50)
• Harry and Julie (HD 12:24) - 2015 Interview with Stars Anthony Edwards and Mare Winningham
• Scoring Miracle Mile (HD 16:38) - Interview with Paul Haslinger
• Excavations From the Editing Room Tar Pits (SD 11:21) - Deleted Scenes, Outtakes and Bloopers
• Diamond in the Rough (SD 14:11) - Refining the Diner Scene - Script Text/Storyboards/Stills/Clips/VHS Rehearsal Footage
• Paul Chadwick Storyboards (HD 38:58) - Storyboards in Sequence
• The Extra Extras (HD 27:26) - Several Small Pieces and Short Films
• A Tribute to the Crew, Cast and Staff (HD 16:17) - Photo Montage
• Alternate Diamond Ending (HD 4:28)

Loaded with new features and a second Blu-ray disc to house all the supplements, Kino Lorber justifies its double dip. While De Jarnatt’s film was a box office disappointment, it's grown a healthy cult following giving Kino reason enough to give this film another spin on disc. Even though a 4K UHD Blu-ray with HDR grading would have been nice, the film has never looked better on home video with great audio and plenty of extras to keep you busy. Miracle Mile on Blu-ray comes Highly Recommended.
Click to Order