Certainly, a good movie was there to be made. “Murder in
the First” takes its inspiration from the real-life trial of Henri
Young, which exposed the cruel and inhuman conditions at the Alcatraz
penitentiary. And the film comes up with a nice fictional
embellishment. It gives Henri (Kevin Bacon) an attorney his own age,
played by Christian Slater.
But something goes wrong in
“Murder in the First,” very wrong — and it goes wrong early on. In
the end you’re left with an example of what happens when a picture
has everything going for it except good writing and good direction.
The most fundamental problem is that “Murder in the
First” is just not easy to watch. Director Marc Rocco and director
of photography Fred Murphy keep the camera moving and shoot much of
it with a hand-held camera, and the result is a series of
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jarring, wobbly scenes. Rocco also indulges in shooting at odd angles
– particularly from the ceiling down. These shots call attention to
the camera but do nothing to bring the audience into the world of the
picture.
TECHNIQUE LACKS HARMONY
Many of us know the ’30s and ’40s through the movies and
newsreels of the period, filmed in a classical style. To take a
hand-held camera into 1940, a director should have a good reason.
Here the technique works neither in harmony with — nor in
counterpoint to — the story and setting.
In the most ridiculous example, the film re-creates a 1938
newsreel but once again uses the hand-held camera. Forget the fact
that cameras in those days were heavy and on tripods. You don’t need
to be aware of the anachronism — you can sense it visually.
The film also has a murky look, though a certain amount of
murk is to be expected in a story about a
prisoner who is tortured for three years in a dungeon. The first 20
minutes give a gruesome, fast-forward rendering of Young’s years in
solitary confinement — naked in a dark, slimy, airless room.
Gary Oldman, as the assistant warden, is convincing as a
jar-
headed, buttoned-down sadist, and Kevin Bacon can howl in pain as
well as any actor in America. But these scenes, which show the
beatings and the torture in loving detail, go on longer than
necessary.
When Henri goes into solitary he is a petty criminal in jail
for stealing $5 from a cash register. When he leaves solitary he is a
lame, disoriented wretch — a mad dog who kills a fellow inmate in
the dining hall with the stem end of a spoon.
Throughout all the preliminary unpleasantness the audience
waits for Slater to show up as the lawyer and for the film to hit its
stride. Somehow it never does.
“Murder in the First,” lacks an all-important core of
emotion. It
tries to find it in the growing friendship between the lawyer and the
client on trial for murder, with scenes of the lawyer trying to draw
the convict out — and of the two men talking freely. But the
friendship never seems more than a device, and their conversations
about women and baseball come across as contrived.
LAWYER DOESN’T CARE
Slater’s close-to-the-vest performance doesn’t help. Though
the film indicates otherwise, you never get the impression that this
young lawyer cares all that much about Henri. Bacon, at least, goes
all out, changing his voice and his walk and coming up with weird
character touches. But Slater’s idea of creating a character these
days amounts to little more than wearing glasses, rolling up his
sleeves and smoking.
He is a likable actor all the same, but abandoned here by
his director, Slater drowns. Slater’s courtroom speeches have no
build,
no nuance and no pay-off — and neither do the scenes themselves. A
climactic episode, in which the young lawyer demolishes the testimony
of a witness, falls flat, and it’s only later that we realize this
was intended to represent a big knockout punch.
Embeth Davidtz, so memorable as Ralph Fiennes’ maid in
“Schindler’s List,” is wasted in a go-nowhere role as Slater’s
colleague/
girlfriend; and a promising vein involving the young lawyer’s brother
(Brad Dourif) is dropped midway. Despite giving the impression of
having been seriously trimmed, the film makes for a very long two
hours.
Those trapped with “Murder in the First” might at least
amuse themselves with the scenery. The film may have next-to-no
period feel, but it does have San Francisco City Hall, Fisherman’s
Wharf and the cable cars. It also has Alcatraz — more of Alcatraz
than anyone could reasonably want to see.