MURDER IN THE FIRST

CAPSULE REVIEW –– This could have been just another movie about prison injustice if it weren't for the powerful performances of this great cast. The story IS nothing all that new, but Kevin Bacon will astonish you as a prisoner reduced to a hollow shell of a man after intense inhuman treatment at the hands of the prison warden. He is an inmate/petty criminal being tried for murdering another prisoner. It's Slater's job as his fresh-faced lawyer to prove that the prison turned this timid, uneducated man into a killer due to neglect and blatant abuse and to save his client from execution. The fact that this story is true, lends it a little more weight than it should have. That the action takes place on Alcatraz gives it an additional cache. With Gary Oldman as the religious and vicious warden, what more could you want? The characters played by Bacon and Slater would never have been friends in the outside world, yet the relationship that develops as they try Bacon's case, is one of mutual respect and deep affection. While the two of them are onscreen together the film takes on a life of its own, giving a spark and energy to the proceedings the rest of the movie lacks. They are the only people you care about, so the rest of the stuff is just boring. This is a decent courtroom drama made better by the talent of Bacon and Slater.