Rating: 
Summary: The importance of a client lawyer relationship.
Review: This is easily Kevin Bacon's finest. His performance is Oscar worthy. This film inspired me when I was a young legal student. It had been sometime since I have seen the movie. A friend of mine had borrowed the movie and kept it for a good year. I had first bought this movie via a laser disc. Thereafter when the DVD came out, I paid over US 25 for it. Here the performances are solid. I am sure many have written about how great the movie it. As such the purpose of my review is to focus what this show means to me. This movie explores the importance of the client solicitor relationship. The show begins with Young being very alienated to Slater's character. This is shown by the director's careful photography angles. It somehow seems to convey that one has to enter into someone's prison to get another out. It cleverly shows that not only Young was in prison but Slater's character also. This is clearly pointed out when he (the lawyer) chose to enter his (Young) cell. It cleverly shows that he was a slave to the legal system and to the footsteps of his brother brilliant played as always by Douriff. It was clearly a battle that not only Young had to fight but one that Stamphill had to fight as well. Hence trust had to be developed. The story captures a solicitor's need to win his clients confidence. It also deals with situations when the client's instructions are clearly against his advice. My favourite scene is when the judge reprimanded Young and said; "This is my court. I am the one who says whether is OK or not OK". Then staring at Young he asks "OK?" Now that is brilliant. Well done, Marc Rocco. You have won a fan. Can't wait for a director's cut with 5.1 sound to come out.
Rating: 
Summary: Kevin Bacon is brilliant
Review: This movie did not get the hype I think it deserved. I happen to watch it on a whim...I normally go for the movies surrounded by hype. I was greatly impressed with Bacon's acting. I think this is his best, most powerful role yet. The closing scene when his walking though the prison is enough to make a grown man cry. If you like prison movie or just plain GOOD movies watch this one.
Rating: 
Summary: true story? not!
Review: This movie is a prime example of Hollywood taking a so-called 'true story' and completely twisting the facts to make it more entertaining. The producers attempt to justify this by saying it is 'based' on a 'true story'. This is like making a movie about Adolf Hitler and saying he killed a few people. If you do a little research about Henri Young, you'll find that he was hardly the innocent who in desperation stole $5. Also, unlike the ending in the movie, Henri Young did not die on Alcatraz. He was finally paroled from a prison in Washington in 1972 (!!!) after which he disappeared.
Rating:
Summary: Best Court Movie
Review: This movie is very touching, inspiring, and true. I believe that it is the best court movie ever. Excellent acting, good camera manuevers, and a great story all aid this movie. The beginning is a little gruesome (for girls mainly), but after that, it is hardly R rated material. This film is a movie that I am going to add to my DVD collection. If you don't choose to purchase it though, at least rent it. Five stars coming from the Dude.
Rating:
Summary: A well acted, well scripted movie.
Review: This movie not only has some of the best acting that i have seen, but the script is an amazing piece of art. A must see for people who enjoy learning about alcatraz and about the court.
Rating:
Summary: The Guy Looks Like Larry Day
Review: Unfortunately Larry Day is one ugly sucker so I question the casting
Rating:
Summary: "You can't handle the truth!"
Review: Upon seeing Burt Lancaster in "The Birdman of Alcatraz," a young boy wrote a letter to the warden pleading for his release. One of the things left out of the film, of course, was that in addition to ornithology, the real Birdman had another hobby -- writing pornographic stories for other inmates involving young boys about the same age as the one who wrote the letter.... "Murder in the First" is yet another example of how, when one sees the words "basedon/inspiredby a true story" used to describe a book or film, what it really means is "at most maybe 2-5% is true, and the rest is BS." Some say that it is unfair to criticize a film for not being 100% true to the events and characters it purports to portray. But I find it hard to approve of a film that must alter reality in order to get me to buy into its message. If you're going to fictionalize, then go all the way. Don't try to claim that this really happened when it in fact did not! And if you don't like the prison system, then try to persuade me to change it by using rational, well-reasoned logical arguments, instead of creating a piece of cinematic propaganda -- effective propaganda, at that, considering some of the other reviews on this page. Reviewer after reviewer has mindlessly repeated the BS from the blurbs on the box, in spite of how demonstrably the film's press kit contradicts the facts. This film suffers from the same tragic flaw almost all prison films suffer from. Put stereotypically innocent prisoners and stereotypically abusive, brutal, and sadistic guards together, and then expect the audience to see that it is in fact the system and society that are truly to blame. Golly, I never realized that by NOT lying, NOT cheating, NOT stealing, and NOT killing, I was in fact the one truly to blame for crime! It was I that drove them to it! Down with democracy! Down with capitalism! Up with socialism! Even if taken as the TOTAL work of fiction that it is -- and should be labeled as -- this film doesn't work. Even good performances by Bacon, Oldman and Slater cannot rescue this stupidly stereotypical script. I have irrevocably lost respect for anyone associated with this film, as I have with anyone involved with Oliver Stone's perverse exercise in the post-modern concept of "mythic truth" being more important than "historical fact," "JFK." It's like asking me to excuse the fact that Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi propaganda was commissioned by Hitler just because, in all honesty, she DID have great directorial talent. I believe in capital punishment for ALL violent crime, but I also believe that NO ONE, no matter what their crime, should be abused or brutalized in any way, shape or form, so, in that respect, I despise the prison system, too. But it wasn't a piece of Hollywood propaganda like "Murder in the First" that led me to that point of view. It's films like this that make it seem so disengenuous when people in Hollywood act shocked and amazed that they are seen as dogmatically liberal and leftist....
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable film, pure fiction
Review: Upon seeing this movie, despite the rather cliché, sadistic warden versus good prisoner plot, I still found the film rather enjoyable. However I was extremely disappointed to find that while they declared this was inspired by a true story, most likely to boost interest, the real story of Henri Young is much different. Henri Young was by no means the innocent and harmless victim as portrayed in this movie. In reality he was a bank robber and murderer who killed a man three years before he even reached Alcatraz. Indeed, Alcatraz was a brutal place, but in the end the fate of Kevin Bacon's character is nearly completely fictionalized. The real Young was eventually paroled and to this day, his whereabouts are unknown. For the real story, visit the National Parks website for Alcatraz.
Rating:
Summary: GOOD
Review: VERY GOOD MOVIE THAT HAS TO DO WITH A GUY THAT KILLED A MAN IN A POST OFFICE TO FEED HIS SISTER SLATER IS GREAT
Rating:
Summary: Gripping performances
Review: Very well done movie, in spite of whether it is 100% accurate. The movie was still great. Kevin Bacon delivered (in my opinion) his best performance ever, as did Christian Slater. Gary Oldman is always good, and it is hard to judge him because all of his performances are oscar-worthy. This is the kind of movie that is hard to forget, because it makes an impact. You fall in love with Kevin Bacon's character, even though the film completely showed him murdering a man. Brilliantly directed, one of my favorite films. The R rating is due to some strong prison brutalities (including a rather graphic murder and some nudity) and language. Some brief sexual innuendo occurs, but not enough to kick up a fuss (as far as I remember).
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