Review of Murder in the First (1995) by Bill S — 18 Nov 2014

This one really got to be. The Magdalene Sisters is more horrific, especially because of that ending, and the absurdity and scale of the abuse in Ireland. I'm American, and that dark chronicle seems foreign, while Murder in the First is all too familiar. This one reeks of our national sickness of soul. I don't think a film has angered me more. Yes, it ends with a positive, which is that Alcatraz shut down. What hasn't changed is the fundamental perspective that would allow a place like Alcatraz exist as an avatar, a monument to cruelty. We still incarcerate people for no good reason, and crucially, we're more than willing to look the other way at horrible treatment once inmates are in there. There is this notion we have that if you got yourself put in there, you deserve anything you get. As a nation, we don't want to know and we don't care. To this day, we still subject inmates to solitary confinement for long periods of time.

After seeing this movie, I was sick with rage and violent thoughts. A part of me wanted to go on a killing spree, preferably of the entire race. We have an unlimited capacity for cruelty, to a level which I'm not sure can be balanced by random acts of kindness or whatever. Prisons are the ultimate test of our natures, because the opportunity for cruelty is afforded, abetted, and legitimized by society's tacit approval. Dostoyevsky saw this, and declared that the character of a people can be seen by how they treat their prisoners. He also wrote a character who said that it would be better for humanity not to exist than for one innocent child to suffer a cruel fate. In every meaningful way, henri Young was this innocent child, and we haven't changed, even if we've closed Alcatraz.