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:

Revealing mistakes: "Kidnapped" is misspelled (as "Kidnaped") in the Miami Journal headline the day after Delour takes Malcolm's girlfriend.

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Psycho (1960)

Decent Thriller

Decent enough movie, with an absolutely menacing performance by Richard Jordan as the sick, deluded serial killer.

Kurt Russell was...just okay. I couldn't quite figure out what he was getting at. He was burnt out in his job with the newspaper in Miami. He seemed to be craving just the situation that he found himself in. Conversing with a serial killer, and writing about it; Having a literal front row seat at the story of the year; being the central figure in a national story; "approaching pulitzer territory". However, Russell erupted into attitude with just about everybody he came into contact with. At one point, he's smugly satisfied to have found himself to be so deeply involved in an emerging story of a sadistic serial killer, then he snaps at the killer when events aren't turning out favorably. This doesn't seem like the emotional response you would expect from a seasoned reporter. A serial killer is doing something like this just to play with the heads of authority. To expect him to behave rationally is naive and foolish.

However, Russell gamely does generally well with the character, and there are effectively troubling and suspenseful aspects to the film. The subject of newspaper ethics is broached and discussed, although I'm not sure all that effectively.

Andy Garcia, Richard Bradford and Richard Masur were excellent.

Mariel Hemingway was absolutely terrible. She either was giggling, looking completely bewildered, or hysterical. Granted, the script gave her little else to do, but a creative actress could have made something out of it. She completely distracted me every time she was on screen. Just a terrible job.

All in all, a decent, flawed movie with a first-rate performance by Jordan. He made the movie worth it.