Movie review: ‘The Mean Season’

FloridaGator80
A promotional still photograph from the movie “The Mean Season.”

I worked in daily newspaper journalism from 1980 to 2010 and I’d have to say that the film “The Mean Season” from 1985 with Kurt Russell, Mariel Hemingway and Richard Jordan captures the newsroom better than any other movie other than the excellent “All the President’s Men” with Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman (click here to read my review). However, it is the intelligence of the screenplay and the work by the actors that elevates this one above so many other crime dramas. “The Mean Season” is a somewhat forgotten film that is about a serial killer, a reporter and the detectives on the case and is a minor masterpiece in cinema’s crime drama genre.

‘The Mean Season’
(1985; 103 minutes; rated R; directed by Phillip Borsos and starring Kurt Russell, Mariel Hemingway and Richard Jordan)

A CRIME DRAMA THAT SHOULD HAVE WON OSCARS

“The Mean Season” is flat-out a great crime drama that gets top-shelf performances from not just the stars – Kurt Russell, Mariel Hemingway and Richard Jordan – but also from an impressive supporting cast topped by a young Andy Garcia, Richard Bradford and Richard Masur. It was simply a crime that “The Mean Season” wasn’t nominated for multiple Oscars, much less didn’t win any; it was cruelty it wasn’t even nominated for one.

“The Mean Season” is the story of a serial killer in Miami, who makes contact with a newspaper reporter and entangles him in the case. It’s a simple premise, but the screenplay, the actors’ work and the direction by Phillip Borsos makes this a layered, intricate and intelligent film that puts the audience through an emotional roller coaster from the first reel (remember that antiquated term in this digital age?).

Russell stars as reporter “Malcom Anderson” of the fictional “Miami Journal” (or “Tribune,” depending on the poster you see) and he’s covering the case of a murdered girl when he gets a call from the killer, who left a note in his victim’s pocket – “Number 1” and therefore becomes known as the “Numbers” killer. From there, Russell gets drawn into a personal web of a nightmare spun by the killer (Jordan as “Alan Delour”). Hemingway portrays Russell’s girlfriend “Christine Connelly” while Garcia is “Det. Raymond ‘Ray’ Martinez” and Bradford is “Det. Phil Wilson.”

Each of the characters in “The Mean Season” is portrayed to perfection as well as pretty much accurate to the job, from Russell as the reporter to the cops to Russell’s editor, played with understated competence by Masur, who is the best big-screen editor after Jason Robards in the Oscar-winning role of the Washington Post’s Ben Bradlee in “All the President’s Men” (click here to read my review). Each actor brings the proper intensity to his or her character.

Unfortunately, the film’s only weakness is a saccharine ending unworthy of what happens in the rest of the movie. Ah, well. I never considered “The Mean Season” as cinematic perfection.

While I’m most impressed with the actors’ work and the intelligence of the screenplay of “The Mean Season,” I was knocked out by the accuracy of the newspaper journalism in the film. It isn’t perfect, but it is so much more accurate than the sloppy newspaper mess served in “Absence of Malice” with Paul Newman and Sally Field (and written by a former newspaper editor) or the more accurate “The Paper” with Michael Keaton and Glenn Close. Heck, even the tee-vee vampire movie “The Night Stalker” (click here to read my review) has more accurate newsroom scenes than the insult to your intelligence called “Absence of Malice” and none come close to “The Mean Season.”

I offer the opinion about newsrooms since I worked for three decades in daily newspaper journalism and seek to speak from experience.

So, back to “The Mean Season.” Here’s a look at the primary cast, separated by stars, the police detectives and the newspaper main players:

  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “The Mean Season.”

    A Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Russell gives a defining performance as a newspaper reporter from back-in-the-day. He has the ability to transform a personality onto the big screen and that reveals his overall talent as an actor. Russell moves and acts as if he was a real reporter. Kurt was “‘Snake’ Plissken” in the cult fav “Escape from New York” (click here to read my review) and his career is over six decades and totals 109 credits (as of the posting of this update). He was in the side-splitting comedy “Used Cars” (click here to read my review) and has an eclectic resume from “Stargate” to his work as a young actor in Disney films such as “The Barefoot Executive.” I liked his solid work in Quentin Tarantino’s epic “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” (click here to read my review). Russell earned his nomination for “Silkwood.”

  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “The Mean Season.”

    A Primetime Emmy winner, Jordan gives you everything in his repitoire with this effort. While Russell is the “star” of “The Mean Season,” it is Jordan who takes his character to the highest level. Both Garcia and Bradford impressively direct their respective intensities, neither one of them nor Russell reach Jordan’s peak. Of course, the highlights of his efforts are near the end between him and Hemingway and then the three of them together. Jordan was also in “The Hunt for Red October” (click here to read my review) and the iconic sci-fi thriller “Logan’s Run.” He won for the TV mini-series “Captains and the Kings” and had an uncredited role as a man kissing Jane Fonda in “Klute.” Jordan died at 56 in 1993 of a brain tumor.

  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “The Mean Season.”

    An Oscar nominee and two-time Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Hemingway starts out not making much of an impact, but manages to step up her game to her best scene near the end with Jordan. Hemingway took what could have been pretty much a throwaway character and did a solid job and elevated it. She was nominated for the Oscar for “Manhattan” from 19679 and for the Globes in the tee-vee series “Civil Wars” and the movie “Lipstick.” Hemingway was in the at-the-time controversial film “Personal Best” and portrayed the Playboy Playmate who was murdered in the violent and sleazy based-on story “Star 80,” that was directed by Bob Fosse.

Here is my look at the two detectives:

  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “The Mean Season.”

    An Oscar nominee and two-time Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Garcia, who was 28 when “The Mean Season” had its premiere on Feb. 15, 1985, and only his sixth film, gives an intense performance that is a lesson in how to elevate a character in a movie. He plays the more emotional part of the detective team investigating the murders. I certainly enjoyed his work in the “Ocean’s Eleven” remake franchise (click here to read my review of the first remake) and he was also in “The Godfather Part III,” which earned him both Oscar and Globe nominations, as well as being in “Black Rain” with Michael Douglas and the excessively violent “Smokin’ Aces.” His other Globe nomination and two Primetime Emmy nominations were for the tee-vee movie “For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story.”

  • Bradford is quietly efficient with an underlying tone of violence ready to surface. His character appears to have a congenital dislike of reporters in general and Russell as a specific. Bradford does a wonderful job as the conservative detective keeping his emotions in check. Further, his physical features of white hair that makes his black eyebrows a stunning statement, helps deliver the character to the audience. I enjoyed his work in the drama “Missing” with Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemmon and he was in “The Untouchables” with Garcia. He was also in “More American Graffiti,” “The Missouri Breaks” with Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson and a variety of guest shots on popular tee-vee shows. Bradford died at 81 in 2016 after notching 84 acting credits in a career spanning five decades since the first in 1966.

At the fictional Miami newspaper you’ll find …

  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “The Mean Season.”

    A Primetime Emmy nominee, Masur plays editor “Bill Nolan” and plays the part to editorial perfection. His smooth effort brings a certain calm into Russell’s chaos and manages to express a news executive’s business about events, while not forgetting that his reporter needs humanity, too. Masur was a nasty bad guy in “Who’ll Stop the Rain” with Nick Nolte and I enjoyed him in the anti-corporate comedy “Head Office” (click here to read my review). Another small comedy role was in “License to Drive” (click here to read my review). Masur’s first acting credit was in a critically acclaimed episode of the legendary tee-vee series “All in the Family.” His nomination was for the tee-vee movie “The Burning Bed” with Farrah Fawcett.

  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “The Mean Season.”

    Primetime Emmy winner and nominee, Joe Pantoliano plays newspaper photographer “Andy Porter” and this is quiet work from an energetic actor. He does a solid job in a small role and does a good job of conveying how a newspaper photographer works. Pantoliano was turncoat “Cypher” in “The Matrix” as well as a pimp in “Risky Business” with Tom Cruise and has played a similar kind of crook in films such as “Running Scared” He has also done a variety of other work from the pilot for tee-vee’s “A. Law” to voicing in films and even voicing in video games. Pantoliano’s Emmy win was for playing the psychotic “Ralph Ciffaretto” in 21 episodes of HBO’s “The Sopranos” and his nomination was for an episode of the tee-vee series “The Price.”

An Oscar nominee for short titled “Nails,” Borsos should have added an Oscar nomination (or outright win) for “The Mean Season” with its intricate plot and how he managed to get the best from every actor. He also directed a different crime drama “The Grey Fox” about a train robber; as well as Disney’s “One Magic Christmas” starring Mary Steenburgen from the same year as “The Mean Season.” Borsos was a native of Australia and he died young at 41 of leukemia in 1995.

“The Mean Season” was taken from the novel “In the Heat of the Summer” by award-winning journalist John Katzenbach of the Miami Herald. I found the novel to be quietly sensational and still have the hardcover first-edition. The translation of the excellent novel to “The Mean Season” is one of the best I’ve ever seen and those kind of translations usually are failing efforts.

BTW … part of the newspaper verisimilitude of the film comes from scenes filmed at the headquarters of the real-life Miami Herald (you even get to see the big presses running – a visual not much evident any longer in this digital, non-print age).

Sadly and disproportionate to its excellence, “The Mean Season” was pathetic as the 134th ranked film in the U.S. in 1985 with an anemic $4.34 million in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. Incredible, an Oscar-worthy film that earned less than the simply putrid martial arts film “Gymkata” that starred Olympic gymnast Kurt Thomas (he even used a disguised gymnastics pommel horse in one fight scene). The No. 1 film of 1985 was “Back to the Future” with $190.5 million in ticket sales. Here are the other films from 1985 that I’ve reviewed and posted on my blog:

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Russell’s middle name is Vogel; Hemingway’s middle name is Hadley; Jordan’s full birth name was Robert Anson Jordan Jr.; Garcia’s full birth name is Andrés Arturo García Menéndez; and Pantoliano’s nickname is “Joey Pants.”
  • Russell is 5-foot-9¼, while Hemingway is 5-foot-11.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “Kurt Russell prepared for his role as a reporter by spending time with veteran Miami Herald crime journalist Edna Buchanan and Miami Herald photographer Tim Chapman.”
  • Some scenes both interiors and exteriors were filmed at Miami’s courthouse at the time.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “Originally the source material was in a yet unpublished novel form, written by John Katzenbach in 1982. The manuscript then landed on producer David Foster‘s desk. Foster optioned it as a film, and the property then got published as a novel named ‘In The Heat of Summer.’” Oh, good, the poster of this nugget on IMDb.com couldn’t even get the title of the novel correct. It is “In the Heat of the Summer.”

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