Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Michael Mann in His Interviews
- 1 Four Minute Mile
- 2 Castle Keep
- 3 Of Vice and Mann
- 4 Manhunter: An Interview with Michael Mann
- 5 Michael Mann: Hollywood Writer–Director–Producer
- 6 Mann and His Movies
- 7 All the Corporations’ Men
- 8 Smoking Gun
- 9 “Ali Likes the Film a Lot. He's Seen it Six Times”
- 10 Paint it Black
- 11 Mann Among Men
- 12 L.A. Belongs to the Coyotes
- 13 Michael Mann Interview
- 14 A Mann's Man's World
- 15 Number One with a Bullet
- 16 The Study of Mann
- Chronology
- Filmography
- Publisher's Acknowledgments
- Index
1 - Four Minute Mile
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2016
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Michael Mann in His Interviews
- 1 Four Minute Mile
- 2 Castle Keep
- 3 Of Vice and Mann
- 4 Manhunter: An Interview with Michael Mann
- 5 Michael Mann: Hollywood Writer–Director–Producer
- 6 Mann and His Movies
- 7 All the Corporations’ Men
- 8 Smoking Gun
- 9 “Ali Likes the Film a Lot. He's Seen it Six Times”
- 10 Paint it Black
- 11 Mann Among Men
- 12 L.A. Belongs to the Coyotes
- 13 Michael Mann Interview
- 14 A Mann's Man's World
- 15 Number One with a Bullet
- 16 The Study of Mann
- Chronology
- Filmography
- Publisher's Acknowledgments
- Index
Summary
The Jericho Mile is Michael Mann's first directorial feature. A raw, wellobserved and humane story set in Folsom State Penitentiary, it was originally made for American television, where it won Mann and his co-director Patrick J. Nolan an Emmy for Best Dramatic Screenplay.
“After that first showing [says Mann], there was an enormous public response. To give you an example. I was in a supermarket in Los Angeles a few days afterwards and these kids were playing around there and saying things like ‘Stop goin’ up in my face!’ and ‘Man, you're goin’ up in my face!’ and all that prison slang, just like in the movie. It seemed to strike a chord with people of all ages and walks of life. Now, ABC were going to put it out again, but decided they'd release it theatrically instead. That took a lot of courage. They were giving up around $700,000 a minute in advertising, that's about seven minutes an hour! But I knew exactly what the movie was going to do. I'd been prepared for it, shot it in 35mm and everything, shooting it just like a cinema feature. It had really taken off after that first TV screening, and audiences have been marvellous.”
The film is the story of Rain Murphy (Peter Strauss), a lifer with a talent for track running. He is spotted by the editor of the prison newspaper as a possible contender for the US Olympics team. A professional coach is brought in to train him and the runner's progress from introspective isolationist to prison mascot is ranged against a vivid, invariably brutal background of racial and religious rivalries, organised crime and even murder, within the walls of the jail. The murder of Murphy's only friend, R.C. Stiles (Richard Lawson), a likeable black who has fallen foul of the prison's drug king, Dr D (Brian Dennehy), brings the hatreds between white and black abruptly into the open. Murphy is caught in the crossfire, but triumphs over all obstacles, until faced with the biggest hurdle of all, the Olympic Selection Board. The Board, funded with private money, is jealous of its image and gives Murphy a rough time. The ending of the film is ironic and Murphy's final demonstration of skill can be interpreted as either triumph or failure.
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- Information
- Michael Mann - Cinema and TelevisionInterviews, 1980-2012, pp. 15 - 31Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2014