This is the most underrated movie i've ever seen. I suggest everbody to watch this.

The guards at Alcatraz kill one prisoner and recapture others including Henri Young (Kevin Bacon) during an escape attempt. Young would spend three years and two months in solitary confinement. He had stolen $5 from a grocery store to take care of his sister. The fact that a U.S. Post Office is also in the store made it a Federal offense. After being released from solitary, he kills a fellow prisoner. Young James Stamphill (Christian Slater) becomes his defense lawyer who makes Alcatraz and Warden Milton Glenn (Gary Oldman) as the ultimate cause of the murder.This is one of those based on true story but one shouldn't look too closely. The story is filled with big stereotypes. Kevin Bacon is stripped down in an amazing performance. I like certain touches of this historical setting. Slater is fine and Oldman is great evil. I can't shake off the feeling that this has a fake fable feel.

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 about every factual detail of this film is a complete lie, right down to the spelling of Henry Young's name (Henri was an alias of this habitual bank robber and murderer). The whole film is just a high-handed defamation of the U.S. penal system, which did not warrant any such besmirching. I'm surprised that R. Lee Ermey was a part of this film. He probably regrets it by now. The real Henri Young jumped parole in 1972, was last seen in Washington State, and may still be alive and at large today with at least two known homicides to his credit. He was not a non-violent offender at the time he came to Alcatraz, he was serving a sentence for murder and bank robbery! He did not spend 3 years or even three months in solitary after the escape attempt, and murdered McCain over a year after rejoining the general prison population. His solitary time was done in a normal holding cell in the main cell block, with normal lighting, exercise, medical attention, and food supplies throughout the entire period. DO NOT GET YOUR HISTORY FROM Hollywood! They spin sentimentalist lies at every possible opportunity. Check out the facts on "Birdman of Alcatraz" and "Awakenings" for two more infamous pack of lies.