Good movie but grossly overrated

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

"Murder in the First" commences to the year 1935 as a down-on-his- luck young man named Henri Young (Kevin Bacon) desperately steals $5 from a post office. His criminal act harshly leads him to be sentenced to five years in prison. The worst part is, Mr. Young is only 18 years old. This opening scene begins the superficial story of Henri Young and his time in Alcatraz. Prison life has not been the life for Young as he and other inmates make a great effort to escape only to be caught red-handed. Young gets sent to the "hole" where he remains there for three years. Left under supervision by the guards and one very mean warden named Milton Glenn (Gary Oldman) who hated Young the first time he set eyes on him, he is physically tortured and incapacitated while remaining in the "hole". There are days or even weeks when no human contact comes his ways while he's in the hole. Three years later, Henri is released from the hole, but a complete shell of his former self. So much so that as an act of revenge, Young kills the brown-nose inmate who tattled on him when he was making his escape. Now Young finds himself in a much deeper offence as he is now convicted of first degree murder. His appointed attorney James Stamphill (Christian Slater) pays Young a visit to Alcatraz. At first glance, he appears to look like a malnourished, decrepit elderly individual when really, he's only just a couple years older than Stamphill. The harsh and physical punishment he's endured during his incarceration has him now unable to walk upright, his legs and back are crippled and his speech is very slurred and his mind is almost lost. Almost as though he has dementia, he now has the mental capacity of a child. The only thing he can remember were happy times were baseball and Babe Ruth. Stamphill, who's a rookie lawyer finds himself in a precarious situation as finds it very difficult to communicate with someone like Henri.Stamphill finding the only way to open up to Henri is by talking to him about baseball. Through many visits, Henri progressively opens up to Stamphill which lead to Stamphill going over his head. Leaving him with no real hope, Stamphill persuades Henri to plead innocent and to overrule the trial and instead place the penal system and Alcatraz on trial. Stamphill then blames Alcatraz for turning Henri into the insane person he has become.In one of the only humorous scenes, Stamphill beings in a hooker posed as one of his assistants. This was a ploy to offer something to Henri due to never being able to enjoy the moment because of his long prison sentence. But this effort and the baseball discussions between Henri and Stamphill, the bonding between both men continued until Henri's death. In an excellent trial scene, Stramphill successfully proves to the judicial system that Henri was left in the unmerciful hands of Warden Milton Glenn and completely lays blame to the penal system which eventually leads to the potential closing of Alcatraz. Henri must return to Alcatraz until the paperwork leading to his release has been done. In a memorable scene we see Henri getting on a boat begging Stamphill not to send him back. He is now emancipated, but can't understand why he must wait for this paperwork to be completed in order to get of Alcatraz. Henri was never discharged from Alcatraz and remained there until his death. Even though the story is loosely based on real characters, the performances were absolutely phenomenal, especially from the three principals being Christian Slater, Kevin Bacon and Gary Oldman. For the past three decades, the ladies have often had the hearts melting for the attractive Kevin Bacon. But in this movie, they can see just how riveting he is in a heart-breaking but highly respected performance he delivers here. His manners and his characteristics were truly realistic. Slater was the perfect casting choice to play the part of the green, inexperienced lawyer thrown into a case he never thought he'd never thought possible. His fight against the penal system was handled with care and never felt forced or rushed. Gary Oldman has been quite versatile with his roles in the past comes through as a tough, unmerciful warden.Even though the story is inspired by real events and characters, but in reality it is still a work of fiction. However, the situations look and feel real. The execution of the story and the characters really draws you in and you really root the whole time through to Henri and hope that he is able to be released before it is too late. On a positive note, it was just wonderful that the evil, cruel atmosphere that was Alcatraz was brought down in defeat.

It is often interesting how when old movies show up On Demand years after their first release there is a waterfall of response from viewers - almost like the film has been resurrected and given a second life. Such is the case for this 1995 film MURDER IN THE FIRST - there seems to be a more honest evaluation of the film as a film than when it was first released and the public took exception to the 'veracity' of the allegedly true story.According to the reported facts, 'Henri Theodore Young (born 1918) was a prisoner at Alcatraz who attempted to escape with four other inmates, Arthur Barker, Dale Stamphill, William Martin, and Rufus McCain. Young became a bank robber and was known for aggressively taking hostages. In 1933, he committed murder. After spending time in prisons in Washington state and Montana, he was sent to the federal prison on Alcatraz Island. On the night of January 13, 1939, Young, with prisoners Rufus McCain, Arthur Barker, Dale Stamphill, and William Martin, attempted to escape. Martin, Young, and McCain surrendered, while Barker and Stamphill refused to surrender and were subsequently shot. Barker eventually died from his injuries. Allegedly, Young and McCain were sentenced to long terms each in solitary confinement, but they were back in the prison's general population within months. A year later, Young killed Rufus McCain by plunging a spoon into his neck; he never revealed his motive.' Those are the 'facts' upon which this film was based, but in the film the sequence is different. The film plot follows:Henri Young (Kevin Bacon) stole five dollars from a post office and ended up going to prison - to the most famous, or infamous, prison of them all: Alcatraz. He tried to escape, failed, and spent three years and two months in solitary confinement - in a dungeon, with no light, no heat and no toilet. Milton Glenn (Gary Oldman), the assistant warden, who was given free reign by his duty-shirking superior, was responsible for Young's treatment. Glenn even took a straight razor and hobbled Young for life. After three years and two months, Young was taken out of solitary confinement and put with the rest of the prisoners. Almost immediately, Young took a spoon and stabbed a fellow prisoner in the neck, killing him. Now, Young is on trial for murder, and if he's convicted he'll go to the gas chamber. An eager and idealistic young attorney, James Stamphill (Christian Slater), is given this impossible case, and argues before a shocked courtroom that Young had a co-conspirator. The true murderer, he says, was Alcatraz.Mark Rocco directed from the screenplay written by Dan Gordon and the film was photographed by Fred Murphy, the tense musical scoring is by Christopher Young. The story is tight and made credible by the extraordinarily fine performances of Kevin Bacon, Christian Slater, Gary Oldman and a supporting cast that includes Embeth Davidtz, Kyra Sedgwick, Mia Kirshner, William H. Macy, R. Lee Ermey, Stephen Tobolowsky, and Brad Dourif. This is more a character study than reportage of an historical incident and as such the movie succeeds on every level. Grady Harp

Just happened upon this movie the other night & decided to tape it as I couldn't watch on TNT's schedule. How I missed this movie 17 years ago I'll never know. This is by far one of the best movies I've ever seen! Not only was Kevin Bacon FANTASTIC, Christian Slater GREAT!!! I've never been a big Gary Oldman fan he was also EXCELLENT. I was riveted to my chair throughout the entire movie; wish I'd seen it years ago when it first came out.I grew up in the Bay Area and the scenery indoors and out were spot on! They truly did a great job on this movie.

Murder in the First is directed by Marc Rocco and written by Dan Gordon. It stars Kevin Bacon, Christian Slater, Gary Oldman, Embeth Davidtz, William H. Macy and R. Lee Ermey. Music is scored by Christopher Young and cinematography by Fred Murphy.Slater stars as James Stamphill, an idealistic young attorney who is tasked with defending Alcatraz prisoner Henri Young (Bacon) who clearly murdered a fellow inmate. But what transpires is that Henri had just spent over three years in solitary confinement for attempting to escape the prison. It's evident, also, that Henri has been the subject of systematic violence perpetrated by sadistic Warden Milton Glenn (Oldman). Stamphill risks his career, and Henri's life, to put Alcatraz and the people in charge on trial.Inspired by a true story, viewers should note that this is mostly a fictitious film. The truths are readily available on line so I will not waste space divulging the facts here. Suffice to say that Murder in the First is to be judged solely as a work of fiction. But what a film we get, a heart yanking, emotionally upsetting picture showcasing the evil that men do, filling out the narrative with alienation, cruelty, corruption and revenge driven murder. The dehumanising effects of prison abuse has never been so touchingly portrayed as it is here by Bacon, it's a haunting and vivid portrayal of a man pushed to the limits of sanity, a guy living in the dark recess of hell, struggling with every breath to come out into the light. An astonishing performance that once again in Bacon's career was ignored by his Academy peers.Whilst high on emotional wallop, and some scenes really are tough to watch, the film falls shy of brilliance on account of standard fare for the courtroom sequences. Nothing bad but there's a dramatic thrust missing, and it's not Slater's fault, who is good at being sincere and humanist, the script doesn't provide enough thunder in the trial, in fact often it's too low key for its own good. We get a great snippet of what we are missing as Oldman (another great turn as a angry bastard) loses his cool, but more stomping, shouting and legal soul picking was needed.Tech credits are very good. Rocco has a good sense of claustrophobic atmosphere, the scenes in the bowels of the prison perfectly portray Young's disorientation, the dank, dark and wet surroundings in keeping with the prisoner's state of mind. The director also favours an impressive roving camera technique that serves the story well. He also slots in a couple of noirish reflection scenes, one sees Glenn lose his cool while shaving and smash the mirror, the result is a distorted reflection, a showing of a fractured psyche. The other sees a prison visit between Stamphill and Young separated by a piece of glass, their respective reflections at first coming off as grotesque, but then slowly blending into one, a sign that maybe lawyer and prisoner will eventually sing from the same song sheet? It's a film that has found its way on to some neo-noir lists, visually and thematically as regards Bacon's character, that is fair enough.Elsewhere. Murphy's photography is a key component to the tonal flow of the story, while Young's score is a real treat, criminally forgotten it relies on strings and choir for emotive means and succeeds exceptionally well. In support Macy and Davidtz do well with thinly written parts, but Ermey is a joy as the blunderbuss judge presiding over the trial. Nice to see Brad Dourif in the mix as well, even if we ultimately hanker for more of this great character actor. In a year that saw high end emotional drama released with Dead Man Walking and Leaving Las Vegas, Murder in the First sadly had some of its thunder stolen. Which coupled with the fact many refused to accept it fictionalising the Henri Young/Alcatraz story, saw it slip away until the World went internet crazy and it got rediscovered. It deserves to be found still some more, so seek it out film fans. 8/10