Miracle Mile

Miracle Mile (1988)

Director: Steve De Jarnatt

A few months back there was a CFP (Call For Papers, for all you non-academics) for research on apocalyptically themed cultural production.  I intended to write something, but got to wrapped up in all the movies.  A proposal for a conference paper on a related topic came out of it instead.

It was the CFP, though, that had me collecting and watching all the films I could find on catastrophe and the end of the world.  I actually found a website that had an excellent database of such films.  If you are interested check out apocalyptic movies.com.

Anyway, I'm still working my way through all the interesting films I turned up.  The most interesting so far was this one, Miracle Mile.  It starts as a very typical 80s romantic comedy but takes a left turn and becomes a nuclear holocaust film.

And it is veeeeeeeeeeeery 80s.

By which I mean it is hard for me now to decode the movie.  It seems at times to be intentionally campy but also to be an entirely serious meditation on qualities of the 'human spirit' (lets not dispute this term just now) by examining what people do when they learn of their immanent doom.

Harry Washello (Anthony Edwards, better known as Dr. Greene on ER) oversleeps and misses his date with the girl of dreams.  When he arrives at their prearranged rendezvous, the diner where the girl works, he answers a payphone and learns of an impending nuclear strike on the US.  (It seems unlikely, but a soldier at a nuclear silo in Nebraska has dialed the wrong area code and thinks he is talking with his father.)

Washello proceeds to inform those in the diner of his information and once they believe him, the group scatters in various directions trying to round up loved ones and meet atop a skyscraper where a helicopter will supposedly be waiting to take them to safety.  Except for the cross-dresser--s/he stays put and finishes dinner.

To get his girl, Washello steals a car, holds up a gas station, fights with some cops, reunites the girl's estranged parents, and finds a helicopter pilot.

Out of breath?  That's what this movie feels like.  And at the same time it as a very empty movie--wide open spaces, not many extras until the last ten minutes of the film, and not many plot points to the story.  Lots of incidents, but not much plot at all.  The readily apparent lowness of the budget means spectacular shots of the end time were not possible which, again, serves to make the movie more interesting.

The film says to you, "Here's what the nuclear holocaust might look like if you are a trumpet player hanging out with some of the weirdest losers in LA."

I had no trouble at all sitting still and being quiet--except for a few "WTF?"s here and there.