MURDER IN THE FIRST
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1995 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: This is a story partially based on
truth about a man who was tortured for 38 months in
Alcatraz. In the early 1940s he is on trial for a
murder he was forced to commit in prison. While
the visuals give in to stylistic excesses, the film
boasts terrific performances from Kevin Bacon and
Gary Oldman. Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4)
Back in the 1930s and 1940s Warner Brothers was known for its crime and gangster films. And while they were generally indictments of Organized Crime, Warner Brothers also occasionally would make a film such as I WAS A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG criticizing the barbarities of the system. In that tradition and considerably stronger is MURDER IN THE FIRST, also from Warner Brothers. This is a fictionalized story of an actual case history of petty thief Henri Young (played by Kevin Bacon) sent to the maximum security Alcatraz Federal prison because they had space and he had stolen $5 from a post office. After an escape attempt he is placed in solitary confinement in a nearly pitch black underground cell for 38 months--19 days should be the maximum. During the confinement he is tortured brutally and reduced to little more than an animal. He is abused by Associate Warden Glenn (Gary Oldman) who takes the escape attempt as a personal affront. Glenn's sadistic torture and his diatribes are reminiscent of Amon Goeth in SCHINDLER'S LIST, Upon release from solitary, Young is manipulated into murdering the only other prisoner survivor of their four-man escape attempt.
Young is assigned a Public Defender, a young lawyer who is given the case only because it is absolutely hopeless. James Stamphill (Christian Slater) has in Young a client who was seen to commit the crime by two hundred convicts and who refuses to talk to Stamphill or even react to his presence. And Stamphill is under strong pressure to lose the case. MURDER IN THE FIRST is a harrowing and powerful drama set in a Kafkaesque world of omnipresent abuses of power and trust. With the possible exception of the judge (R. Lee Ermey) just about everybody in this film in a position of power abuses that power. Bosses verbally abuse their employees, prison officials and guards abuse and torture the inmates, trolley car conductors abuse their customers, even family members exploit each other. The script by Dan Gordon has a strong anti-establishment message and a powerful noir-ish tone.
Top-billed Christian Slater does his best to hold on to the film but he is still just Christian Slater in a 1940s business suit. Slater never conveys more than muted emotions at the best of times. In this film he is acting with Gary Oldman, the Robert Duvall of his generation. Oldman nearly always turns in a terrific performance, and as the sadistic Glenn he is genuinely chilling. Kevin Bacon is generally not so impressive, but this is the best role of his career so far. Robbed of his soul by the cruelty of 38 months of unspeakable tortures, harrowingly portrayed in the first half hour of the film, he is little more than a wounded automaton.
Director Marc Rocco has a style that verges on the expressionistic. He uses a very dark and bleak photography throughout the film. Nearly all of the scenes, particularly in and around Alcatraz, are painted in grays, blues, and blacks to underscore the somber noir-ish feel. Rocco gets the downbeat feel he would have had in black and white. Or perhaps he gets it more so because the viewer is aware that these depressing tones are in full color. The only time we see much color at the prison is a shot through some colorful weeds up at the gray prison. But even more noticeable than the artificial color scheme is the use of the camera. Fred Murphy's camera gives us overhead shots, sideways shots, pan shots, dolly shots, track shots, steadicam shots and a few shots there may not even be names for. Initially it seemed to be showing Young's disorientation because of his confinement in darkness, but the lively and active camera lasts through the whole film. In mock 1940s newsreels we are treated to hand-held camera shots that I thought were not invented until decades later. This and the pretentious usage of Christ images during Young's suffering add a mild irritant of pretentiousness.
This is a powerful message film at a time when most films' strongest statement is political correctness. MURDER IN THE FIRST gets a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mark.leeper@att.com
.
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