Murder in the First

Murder in the First (1995) is a prison drama you can watch online on iFILM. Drawn from the case of an Alcatraz inmate whose trial would eventually help shut the island prison down, it pits one battered convict against the whole machinery that broke him.

Kevin Bacon plays Henri Young, who at fifteen stole a few dollars to feed his little sister and ended up on the rock in San Francisco Bay. After a failed break for the wall, the guards lock him in a lightless solitary cell for over three years — no heat, no daylight, barely anything human left by the end. When he finally comes out, he kills the man who informed on him, and a capital charge follows. A green public defender, James Stamphill (Christian Slater), takes the case and slowly realizes the defendant isn't what's on trial — the prison that made him is. Gary Oldman is chilling on the other side as the warden's deputy, the face of that system.

Director Marc Rocco builds the film on the gap between Slater's quiet courtroom persistence and the raw cruelty of the cellblock. Bacon starved himself ragged for the part, and it shows in every frame. A solid courtroom drama for fans of The Green Mile and its kind. Stream Murder in the First (1995) online on iFILM.