The Mean Season (1985)

Director:

Phillip Borsos

Writers:

John Katzenbach (novel)
Leon Piedmont (screenplay)

Release Date:

15 February 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

He was a lead reporter...this was a lead story which led to death.

Plot:

Malcolm Anderson is a reporter for a Miami newspaper. He's had enough of reporting the local murders...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Reporter | Newspaper | Woman In Jeopardy | Helicopter

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Kurt Russell	...	Malcolm Anderson
Mariel Hemingway	...	Christine Connelly
Richard Jordan	...	Alan Delour
Richard Masur	...	Bill Nolan
Richard Bradford	...	Phil Wilson
Joe Pantoliano	...	Andy Porter
Andy Garcia	...	Ray Martinez
Rose Portillo	...	Kathy Vasquez
William Smith	...	Albert O'Shaughnessy
John Palmer	...	Himself
Lee Sandman	...	Harold Jacoby
Dan Fitzgerald	...	Carl Mason
Cynthia Caquelin	...	Ruth Lowenstein
Fred Ornstein	...	Warren Phillips
Fritz Bronner	...	Peter Peterson

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (1985) | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #27614) | West Germany:16 | Netherlands:16

Filming Locations:

Dade County, Florida, USA

Company:

David Foster Productions

Trivia:

The actual City of Miami Police Department's SWAT Team appeared in the movie as the City of Miami Police Department's SWAT Team in a scene where Kurt Russell's character enters the house of a victim. Many interiors were also filmed inside the City of Miami Police Department Headquarters.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Anderson misspells "apparent" as "apparrent" on his word processor, and leaves it uncorrected. This may only be a character error, but it's odd considering he's a potential Pulitzer-winning journalist.

Quotes:

Alan: Have you ever noticed the older you get the smaller you become?

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Psycho (1960)

Tight little thriller shot on location

One of the early serial killer flicks and it still packs a punch. Kurt Russell's Malcolm Anderson reminds me a lot of Darrin McGavin's Kolchak, the skeptical paranormal investigator from TV's "The Night Stalker", from their lousy taste in clothes to their hardheaded devotion to the truth as journalists. Kolchak stalked freaks & creeps and Anderson gets the experience in reverse, seriously wreaking havoc on his off-work romance with girlfriend Christine (Mariel Hemingway), a schoolteacher with strong values. Richard Jordan is suitably creepy in one of his last roles--really a variation on the local corporate slimeball he played in another made-in-FL minor classic, "A Flash Of Green"--as the killer. Andy Garcia is also quite likeable in the role he's best at: solid support work as a police detective pal of Russell's journalist who inadvertantly gets as much press as the glory-seeking villain. I've seen this picture several times and never tire of it. It's in that class of films with "Night Moves", "Flash of Green", maybe "House of Games" and "Blood & Wine": tough-guy thrillers with smart writing and heroes to boot.