The Jericho Mile

A loner at Folsom State Penitentiary (Peter Strauss) gains attention when it's discovered that he can run a mile in less than four minutes. Officials naturally try to see if they can enter him in the Olympics. The cast includes Brian Dennehy, Geoffrey Lewis, Richard Lawson, Roger E. Mosley and Ed Lauter.

"The Jericho Mile" (1979) is a prison movie meshed with sports flick. It's notable as Michael Mann's first movie wherein he was limited by TV constraints, yet it shows his potential and explains why he moved on to greatness, e.g. "The Last of the Mohicans" (1992).

Being made-for-TV, profanity is replaced by wannabe edgy jive talk, which can be unintentionally amusing. If you can roll with that, this is a worthwhile serious story about great talent being trapped in a cage, not to mention the brotherhood of humanity regardless of skin color. I could relate to Strauss' character and I imagine a lot of other viewers can too.

The movie runs 1 hour, 37 minutes, and was shot at Folsom State Penitentiary, Represa, California, about an hour northeast of Sacramento. Several of the peripheral cast members were prisoners at Folsom and do a commendable job.

GRADE: B-

The power of this film stuns me even today. It has all the trademarks of a Michael Mann film, including the line that appears in all his works about the 'man' inventing a hard time that some character cannot handle. This may be the first time that line was used, and argueably, the most effective. Simple story of a simple man who made a decision, and had the guts to face the consequences. He never denies what he did, regrets that it happened, but would do nothing different, given the chance, nor does he try to escape the consequences. Rain Murphy is a man who denies himself all of the creature comforts of civilization. He has no TV or no photos in his cell, no books, only the essentials. He does not work as an inmate, because he denies himself the things he would use his meager pay to buy. He is punishing himself for his crime. He rejects the idea of running in the Olmypics, or even trying, because it would disrupt his new life. A life where he runs until he cannot walk, then zones out until he cannot talk stretching his muscles. A shock to Murphy's system changes all of this, he buys into the dream of competing, only to be cheated. Murphy's final act of defiance is memorable. Mann might have gotten more polished over the years, this film shows talent always delivers

I've never given a movie a ten out of ten before but this is the closest I have ever come (I gave it a 9). There are very few movies that I truly love, this however is one of them. With it's gritty realism, fantastic on-site locationing, and it's great soundtrack it literally blew my young mind when I first saw it in 1979. At that point I didn't know about prisons, violence, racial tensions, or the struggle to survive & live free. I doubt that anyone who is an adult, or for that matter anyone who is growing up in todays world could be impacted by this film in the same way I was all those years ago, but I will say this: "if you haven't seen this movie I envy you"; this is because you have the chance to see this great film for the frist time. For each of us they're different, but here's to the rarest movies of them all: the ones we actually love...

This movie was exceptional. It tells the story of a man who, after he was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing his father-in-law when he found him raping his sister, sets out to become a world-class runner. It not only gave a realistic portrayal of prison life, but also deftly portrays the mentality of someone who is serving such a sentence. Peter Strauss played the role perfectly. Along with "Rich Man, Poor Man", this movie was probably the best performance of his career.

Probably the best scene in this movie was when Murphy was before the civilian board trying to get permission to run in the race and he sees right through the man's preconceptions and bigotry concerning convicts. This man did not see Murphy as a person but rather as something other than what he was. Very rarely has such passion and intelligence come from a made-for-TV movie.

An interesting and involved film about a "lifer" just trying to live out his days peacefully. Elements of the main character appear in Michael Mann's later films, like Thief (1981), Heat (1995), and so on. You can see this one at the UCLA Instructional Media Laboratory-- one of the only places in the country that has copies readily available to the public. It's a great one!