The Jericho Mile **** (1979, Peter Strauss, Roger E Mosley, Brian Dennehy, Richard Lawson, Geoffrey Lewis, Billy Green Bush, Ed Lauter) – Classic Movie Review 12,224

Co-writer/ director Michael Mann’s 1979 triple Emmy Award-winning US made for TV crime drama film The Jericho Mile stars Peter Strauss, who compels the attention as Murphy, an angry convicted killer given a chance to run in the Olympics, in this gripping, well-made TV movie that also enjoyed a cinema release, albeit as the lower half of double bills.

The Jericho Mile is an impressive calling card for director Mann, who went on to his interesting cinema début with the 1981 heist thriller Thief [Violent Streets] and thence a glittering movie career (Manhunter, Heat, The Insider, Collateral).

Also in the first-rate cast are Roger E Mosley, Brian Dennehy, Richard Lawson, Geoffrey Lewis, Billy Green Bush, Ed Lauter, Beverly Todd, William Prince, Miguel Pinero, and Richard Moll.

The Jericho Mile is directed by Michael Mann, runs 98 minutes, is made by ABC Circle, is released by ABC, is written by Patrick J Nolan, B C Meisenburg and Michael Mann, based on a story by Patrick J Nolan, is shot by Rexford L Metz, is produced by Tim Zinnemann, and is scored by Jimmie Haskell.

The film won five awards, including three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Special (Peter Strauss), Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series or a Special (Patrick J Nolan, B C Meisenburg and Michael Mann) and Outstanding Film Editing for a Limited Series or a Special (Arthur Schmidt).

The story is set at Folsom Prison, where the film was shot among the prison population. Research on the project resulted in Mann’s cinema debut with Thief.

Michael Mann had been hired by Dustin Hoffman to do a rewrite on Straight Time (1978). As part of his research, Mann visited Folsom Prison and became fascinated by life there.

Strauss ran 70 miles a week to prepare for the role. He recalls: ‘The Jericho Mile is not a film about prison or prison reform. There are no rape scenes in the shower, no banging of cups on dining room tables. It’s a study of a human being who is at the lowest point of our social structure… to care about him… to find ways to create in him hope and expectation.’

Mann received a graduate degree at the London Film School in 1967 and then returned to US, where he wrote four episodes of Starsky and Hutch and the pilot episode for Vega$, and worked on Police Story with Joseph Wambaugh. His first feature movie is The Jericho Mile, which was released in cinemas in Europe.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,224

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