The Mean Season
Encyclopedia
The Mean Season is a 1985 American thriller directed by Phillip Borsos. The film stars Kurt Russell
, Mariel Hemingway
, Richard Jordan
, Richard Masur
, Joe Pantoliano
, and Andy García
. The screenplay was written by Leon Piedmont, based on the novel In the Heat of the Summer by John Katzenbach
. The film was named after the term of the same name that refers to a pattern of weather that occurs in Florida
during the late summer months. In order to achieve accuracy for the scenes that take place in the busy newsroom, the filmmakers used Miami Herald reporters as on-set consultants and extras and shot in the actual newsroom as opposed to recreating it on a soundstage.
Producer David Foster who was also a graduate of the journalism school at the University of Southern California
, was given Katzenbach’s manuscript and agreed to bring it to the big screen along with fellow producer Lawrence Turman. The film was named The Mean Season after the term of the same name that refers to a pattern of weather that occurs in Florida
during the late summer months. Hot mornings with sticky weather lead into violent thunderstorms that blow in from the Caribbean
and the Gulf of Mexico
in the afternoon. However, the rain doesn't alleviate the heat and only makes things hotter that evening. This cycle repeats every day for a month.
Foster and director Phillip Borsos spent time studying the way people worked in the Herald. Borsos said, “I wanted to know what goes on at 3 p.m., at 5 p.m. There's a wonderful flow of traffic at different times of the day. Gradually, the room fills up. Later, there's a ferocious attack at the computer terminals. A lot of newspaper movies have 10 people in the background, or 50, but there's always the same level of action. If the script said 3:10 p.m., and the first edition was an hour off the streets, I wanted to know what would be happening.”
Coincidentally, when Borsos and his crew arrived at the Herald offices in April 1984, Christopher Bernard Wilder, a man suspected of kidnapping and killing several young women, shot himself in a confrontation with the police at a gas station in New Hampshire
. Borsos remembers, “it seemed as though there were about 500 reporters in the office, and everybody was going insane.”
In order to prepare for the role, Kurt Russell followed around veteran Herald crime reporter Edna Buchanan and photographer Tim Chapman. At first, he couldn’t figure out "how they justify what they do. But I found out that these are very caring people. They may be callous about how they do their jobs, but they're not callous about people. That allowed me, from a reporter's point of view, to have the truth of why Malcolm was able to press on when some people thought he shouldn't." Richard Masur
prepared for his role as an editor by spending several days at the Herald’s city desk.
In order to achieve accuracy for the scenes that take place in the busy newsroom, Borsos used Herald reporters as on-set consultants and extras. Katzenbach told Foster, “that if he made a film about newspapers it was extremely important not to cut corners when presenting the journalistic aspects.” To that end, the production shot in the actual Herald newsroom between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. as opposed to recreating it on a soundstage. None of the actual clutter and look of the place was changed for the film. Foster said, “I don't think we could have had the aroma, the feel we had at the Herald. It had a tone, that city room. I had no idea news reporters were that sloppy.” However, Borsos would have preferred to adopt a more stylized look. He said, “I preferred to have it look somewhat stylized and slightly unreal, more what you would call a 1950's film-noir type of picture. I think making it slightly abstract can be a way of reaching more people. When something is too real, that can almost be a way of limiting you.” Katzenbach was also a regular on the set as a consultant.
The actual City of Miami Police Department's SWAT
Team appeared in a scene where Russell's character enters the house of a victim. Many interiors were also filmed inside the City of Miami Police Department Headquarters as well as the Richard E. Gerstein Criminal Justice Building.
The film received mixed reviews with a 57% rating at Rotten Tomatoes
. In her review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin
wrote that the film, "has a brisk pace and a lot of momentum. It also has a few more surprises than the material needed, since Mr. Borsos, who for the most part works in a tense, streamlined style, likes red herrings." Jack Kroll in Newsweek
wrote, "This movie has the weather of Body Heat
, the moral stance of Absence of Malice
and the perverse plot-angle of Tightrope
. It's also not as good as any of these". In her review for the Washington Post, Rita Kempley wrote, "Overall the film seems a little flat, a little stale. The clouds roil and the thunder claps like a gun report".
Kurt Russell
Kurt Vogel Russell is an American television and film actor. His first acting roles were as a child in television series, including a lead role in the Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters...
, Mariel Hemingway
Mariel Hemingway
- Early life :Hemingway was born in Mill Valley, California, the third daughter of Byra Louise Hemingway and Jack Hemingway, a writer. Her sisters are Joan Hemingway and Margaux Hemingway...
, Richard Jordan
Richard Jordan
Richard Jordan was an American stage, screen and film actor. A long-time member of the New York Shakespeare Festival, he performed in many Off Broadway and Broadway plays...
, Richard Masur
Richard Masur
Richard Masur is an American actor who has appeared in more than 80 movies during his career. From 1995-1999, he served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild . Masur sits on the Corporate Board of the Motion Picture & Television Fund.-Biography:Masur was born in New York City to a...
, Joe Pantoliano
Joe Pantoliano
Joseph Peter "Joe" Pantoliano is an American film and television actor. He played the character of Ralph Cifaretto on The Sopranos, Bob Keane in La Bamba, Cypher in The Matrix, Teddy in Memento, Francis Fratelli in The Goonies, Guido "the Killer Pimp" in Risky Business, and Jennifer Tilly's...
, and Andy García
Andy García
Andrés Arturo García Menéndez , professionally known as Andy García, is a Cuban American actor. He became known in the late 1980s and 1990s, having appeared in several successful Hollywood films, including The Godfather: Part III, The Untouchables, Internal Affairs and When a Man Loves a Woman...
. The screenplay was written by Leon Piedmont, based on the novel In the Heat of the Summer by John Katzenbach
John Katzenbach
John Katzenbach is a U.S. author of popular fiction. Son of Nicholas Katzenbach, former United States Attorney General, John worked as a criminal court reporter for the Miami Herald and Miami News , and a featured writer for the Herald’s Tropic magazine...
. The film was named after the term of the same name that refers to a pattern of weather that occurs in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
during the late summer months. In order to achieve accuracy for the scenes that take place in the busy newsroom, the filmmakers used Miami Herald reporters as on-set consultants and extras and shot in the actual newsroom as opposed to recreating it on a soundstage.
Plot
Malcolm Anderson is a reporter for a Miami newspaper, who is burned out from years of covering the worst crimes in the city. He promises his girlfriend Christine that they will move away from the city, but he ends up covering a series of grisly murders by a serial killer who calls him telling the reporter that he will kill again. The lines between covering the story and becoming part of it are blurred.Cast and characters
- Kurt RussellKurt RussellKurt Vogel Russell is an American television and film actor. His first acting roles were as a child in television series, including a lead role in the Western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters...
as Malcolm Anderson - Mariel HemingwayMariel Hemingway- Early life :Hemingway was born in Mill Valley, California, the third daughter of Byra Louise Hemingway and Jack Hemingway, a writer. Her sisters are Joan Hemingway and Margaux Hemingway...
as Christine Connelly - Richard JordanRichard JordanRichard Jordan was an American stage, screen and film actor. A long-time member of the New York Shakespeare Festival, he performed in many Off Broadway and Broadway plays...
as Alan Delour - Richard MasurRichard MasurRichard Masur is an American actor who has appeared in more than 80 movies during his career. From 1995-1999, he served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild . Masur sits on the Corporate Board of the Motion Picture & Television Fund.-Biography:Masur was born in New York City to a...
as Bill Nolan - Richard BradfordRichard BradfordRichard Bradford was a novelist, best known for his 1968 novel Red Sky at Morning, a film version of which was released in 1971. He also wrote So Far from Heaven, a novel about the adventures of a disillusioned executive who flees his life in the city for a New Mexico cattle ranch. Mr...
as Phil Wilson - Joe PantolianoJoe PantolianoJoseph Peter "Joe" Pantoliano is an American film and television actor. He played the character of Ralph Cifaretto on The Sopranos, Bob Keane in La Bamba, Cypher in The Matrix, Teddy in Memento, Francis Fratelli in The Goonies, Guido "the Killer Pimp" in Risky Business, and Jennifer Tilly's...
as Andy Porter - Andy GarcíaAndy GarcíaAndrés Arturo García Menéndez , professionally known as Andy García, is a Cuban American actor. He became known in the late 1980s and 1990s, having appeared in several successful Hollywood films, including The Godfather: Part III, The Untouchables, Internal Affairs and When a Man Loves a Woman...
as Ray Martinez - William SmithWilliam Smith (actor)William Smith is an American actor who has appeared in almost 300 feature films and television productions.Smith began his acting career at the age of 8 in 1942...
as Albert O'Shaughnessy
Production
Veteran crime reporter for the Miami Herald newspaper John Katzenbach wrote the novel, In the Heat of the Summer, based on his years of experiences and of stories told to him by fellow reporters he knew. He tried to examine what he described as “the nature of reporting and the ambiguity and ambivalence of the job. There's a fundamental dilemma in, on the one hand, thinking 'How can I intrude on these people at the moment of exquisite agony?' and, on the other hand thinking 'My God, I'm sitting on a terrific story!'”Producer David Foster who was also a graduate of the journalism school at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, was given Katzenbach’s manuscript and agreed to bring it to the big screen along with fellow producer Lawrence Turman. The film was named The Mean Season after the term of the same name that refers to a pattern of weather that occurs in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
during the late summer months. Hot mornings with sticky weather lead into violent thunderstorms that blow in from the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
and the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
in the afternoon. However, the rain doesn't alleviate the heat and only makes things hotter that evening. This cycle repeats every day for a month.
Foster and director Phillip Borsos spent time studying the way people worked in the Herald. Borsos said, “I wanted to know what goes on at 3 p.m., at 5 p.m. There's a wonderful flow of traffic at different times of the day. Gradually, the room fills up. Later, there's a ferocious attack at the computer terminals. A lot of newspaper movies have 10 people in the background, or 50, but there's always the same level of action. If the script said 3:10 p.m., and the first edition was an hour off the streets, I wanted to know what would be happening.”
Coincidentally, when Borsos and his crew arrived at the Herald offices in April 1984, Christopher Bernard Wilder, a man suspected of kidnapping and killing several young women, shot himself in a confrontation with the police at a gas station in New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
. Borsos remembers, “it seemed as though there were about 500 reporters in the office, and everybody was going insane.”
In order to prepare for the role, Kurt Russell followed around veteran Herald crime reporter Edna Buchanan and photographer Tim Chapman. At first, he couldn’t figure out "how they justify what they do. But I found out that these are very caring people. They may be callous about how they do their jobs, but they're not callous about people. That allowed me, from a reporter's point of view, to have the truth of why Malcolm was able to press on when some people thought he shouldn't." Richard Masur
Richard Masur
Richard Masur is an American actor who has appeared in more than 80 movies during his career. From 1995-1999, he served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild . Masur sits on the Corporate Board of the Motion Picture & Television Fund.-Biography:Masur was born in New York City to a...
prepared for his role as an editor by spending several days at the Herald’s city desk.
In order to achieve accuracy for the scenes that take place in the busy newsroom, Borsos used Herald reporters as on-set consultants and extras. Katzenbach told Foster, “that if he made a film about newspapers it was extremely important not to cut corners when presenting the journalistic aspects.” To that end, the production shot in the actual Herald newsroom between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. as opposed to recreating it on a soundstage. None of the actual clutter and look of the place was changed for the film. Foster said, “I don't think we could have had the aroma, the feel we had at the Herald. It had a tone, that city room. I had no idea news reporters were that sloppy.” However, Borsos would have preferred to adopt a more stylized look. He said, “I preferred to have it look somewhat stylized and slightly unreal, more what you would call a 1950's film-noir type of picture. I think making it slightly abstract can be a way of reaching more people. When something is too real, that can almost be a way of limiting you.” Katzenbach was also a regular on the set as a consultant.
The actual City of Miami Police Department's SWAT
SWAT
A SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in various national law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...
Team appeared in a scene where Russell's character enters the house of a victim. Many interiors were also filmed inside the City of Miami Police Department Headquarters as well as the Richard E. Gerstein Criminal Justice Building.
Reception
The Mean Season was released on February 15, 1985 in 876 theaters and grossed USD $1.5 million on its opening weekend. It went on to make $4.3 million in North America.The film received mixed reviews with a 57% rating at Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. In her review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin
Janet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
wrote that the film, "has a brisk pace and a lot of momentum. It also has a few more surprises than the material needed, since Mr. Borsos, who for the most part works in a tense, streamlined style, likes red herrings." Jack Kroll in Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
wrote, "This movie has the weather of Body Heat
Body Heat
Body Heat is a 1981 American neo-noir film written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan. It stars William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, J.A. Preston, and Mickey Rourke. The film is inspired by Double Indemnity....
, the moral stance of Absence of Malice
Absence of Malice
Absence of Malice is a 1981 American drama film starring Paul Newman, Sally Field, and Bob Balaban, directed by Sydney Pollack.-Plot:Miami liquor wholesaler Michael Gallagher is the son of a deceased criminal who awakes one day to find himself a front-page story in the local newspaper, indicating...
and the perverse plot-angle of Tightrope
Tightrope (film)
Tightrope is a 1984 American suspense thriller produced by and starring Clint Eastwood and written and directed by Richard Tuggle.-Plot:A young woman walks home from her birthday party. She is stalked by a man in distinctive sneakers. After dropping one of her presents, a police officer offers to...
. It's also not as good as any of these". In her review for the Washington Post, Rita Kempley wrote, "Overall the film seems a little flat, a little stale. The clouds roil and the thunder claps like a gun report".