BEFORE: Kevin Bacon carries over from "Space Oddity" - I don't know why I feel like I've never used Kevin Bacon as a link before, I'm sure I must have. But since he has a reputation for being connected to everyone else, it just feels kind of too obvious, you know? Like, I'm not playing "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" any more, I've evolved beyond that, but really, have I? Today he's part of the quickest path to get to "Oppenheimer" without going through the "Barbie" film, so I'm going with this - but now today I really need to figure out what's going to happen AFTER "Oppenheimer", because it's causing me great anxiety to only have my schedule figured out a couple days in advance, and then nothing. It's like staring at a big cliff that's coming up, and I can't stop the car in time, and I can't jump out either, so there's nothing I can do...but go over the side.
I'm almost 100 films into Movie Year 16, and so far very few actors have made more than three appearances, which is the threshold for getting mentioned in the Year-End Wrap Up. Only TWO actors have five appearances - Toni Collette and Jennifer Lopez, and another two have four appearances - Brendan Gleeson and Carey Mulligan. Again, it's going to be all about the Doc Block, and how many docs I watch, and that's going to depend on where the Doc Bloc goes, how much space can I allocate for it in May, or is there more room for it in June & July. I've got all day Thursday to try to figure that out, but I also have to leave room on Thursday for watching "Oppenheimer", so I'd better block it out quickly.
THE PLOT: An eager and idealistic young attorney defends an Alcatraz prisoner accused of murdering a fellow inmate. The extenuating circumstances: his client had just spent over three years in solitary confinement.
AFTER: I suppose this is a fine enough lead-in to "Oppenheimer", I mean, something's got to lead in to that movie with its gigantic cast, and yet somehow no lead-in is going to feel like it's enough, you know what I mean? Somewhere out there is a movie that shares 5 or 6 cast members with last year's Best Picture winner, and then somehow I'd be OK with that, but it doesn't really matter, does it? All I need is ONE, everything else is superfluous. Anyway, let's get to today's film before I think about watching "Oppenheimer" tomorrow.
It's legit, this film has been on my DVR since March 2023 - so of all the paths I could take right now, this one helps me the most because it clears some storage space. That, plus I'm burning a DVD today with three documentaries, about Little Richard, Dionne Warwick and Marvin Hamlisch, and two of those are also taking up space, and I've got to make some room somehow. Sure, I'll watch those docs on DVD and without captions if it clears up some space from a DVR that always seems to be about 80% full, no matter what I do. (clearing episodes of "The Masked Singer" and "Top Chef" today would also help). Plus, the movie's like 30 years old, and it's only going to get harder to link to it, so if not now, then when?
The film is (loosely) based on a true story, Henri Young was a real person, according to Wiki he was a bank robber and convicted murderer who was known for taking hostages, and after serving time in Washington and Montana, ended up in Alcatraz prison, in some kind of exchange for two draft picks and a killer to be named later. However, the movie claims he was not a murderer before he made it to Alcatraz, and that the harsh treatment there turned him into one. Also, the movie states that his crime was stealing only $5 from a grocery, to feed his sister, instead of committing several bank robberies. So this is therefore considered an alternate history, due to the need to make Young a more sympathetic character, and further drive home the point that it could only have been the 3 years in solitary confinement (with a 30-minute exercise break every 12 months) that drove him insane and violent.
It's a case where an inexperienced lawyer was trying something different (at least according to the film) by blaming the whole prison system for one man's actions, pointing out that cruel treatment from the warden and guards only leads to pent-up aggression and retaliation by the inmates, which apparently nobody in 1942 could even have considered, let alone the wardens. Which seems a bit ironic because the same people who were saying "an eye for an eye, a life for a life" when punishing prisoners were somehow not considering that if they injured or killed a prisoner, there's just no way that could come back and bite them in the ass. Right?
The good part of the film depicts how James Stamphill, the defense attorney, slowly won the trust of a convict who was more or less catatonic, driven insane by the prison system. He did this by talking about baseball (after taking a crash course on the sport) and listening to Young's needs and his backstory, showing concern and taking the time to locate his missing sister, and, oh, yeah, bringing a prostitute into the prison so he could have sex. That last one seems like maybe bending the rules a bit too much, but whatever wins your difficult client over, I guess.
It's true in both the movie and in reality that Henri Young tried to escape from Alcatraz, like most attempts it was unsuccessful, in part because one of his fellow escapees, Rufus McCain, reported the plan to the warden - this led to Young being held in solitary for three years, and then as soon as he got out, he stabbed an inmate with a spoon, and it was Rufus McCain - but I'm sure that was just a coincidence, there's no way he could have concocted that as a plan, not with so many other things to think about during his three years in "the hole".
It was supposed to be an open-and-shut case, and with so many of our American men off fighting in World War II, the defense was given over to an inexperienced defense lawyer, with no expectation that he would try to win the case by blaming the warden, the guards and society for what happened. Also the press got involved and so the case was tried in the court of public opinion, also apparently the prosecuting attorney wasn't expecting anyone to put up a strong defense, so maybe he didn't properly prepare? And then of course we have the singular "Law & Order" moment where the assistant warden just LOSES IT on the stand after the defense applies just a little pressure. So, was torturing inmates the right thing to do, or the wrong thing? Debatable, perhaps but it damn sure shouldn't have been standard procedure.
There's also a weird conundrum here, where the accused is admitting guilt for something that he doesn't remember doing, because being found guilty would lead to the death penalty, and he would rather die than be sent back to Alcatraz, which is somehow both understandable and unfathomable at the same time. And his attorney points this out, believing that keeping his client alive is in his best interests, only that life will most likely be spent in prison, and confinement is what drove him insane and able to commit murder in the first place. Allegedly.
The good news here is that Warden Glenn was charged for mistreatment of prisoners, was found guilty and never worked in a prison again. Also bad publicity over prisoner abuse led (eventually) to Alcatraz being closed down in 1963 and turned into a tourist attraction. And the bad news is that the real Henri Young was transferred out in 1948 but sent to a medical center/prison in Springfield, Missouri to complete his federal sentence, and then the Washington State penitentiary in 1954 to start a life sentence for a 1933 murder conviction (one that the film omitted) and he was released at age 61 in 1972. However, he jumped parole and disappeared, but since that was over 50 years ago, and he'd be 113 if still alive, it's doubtful that he's still out there somewhere.
As Nemo in "Slumberland" pointed out, there are all kinds of prisons, school is a form of prison, a job is a form of prison, and then eventually if you're lucky you spend your final days in a nursing home, which is another form of prison. I don't think any of them are as bad as actual prison, but then maybe it's all relative. But really, any place that you have to go and you're not free to leave is...well, you know.
Also starring Christian Slater (last seen in "Tales from the Darkside: The Movie"), Gary Oldman (last seen in "The Amazing Johnathan Documentary"), Embeth Davidtz (last seen in "Mansfield Park"), William H. Macy (last seen in "Blood Father"), Stephen Tobolowsky (last seen in "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!"), Brad Dourif (last heard in "Ready Player One"), R. Lee Ermey (last seen in "Filmworker"), Mia Kirshner (last seen in "Not Another Teen Movie"), Ben Slack (last seen in "Serpico"), Stefan Gierasch (last seen in "The Champ"), Kyra Sedgwick (last seen in "Villains"), Alex Bookston, Richie Allan (last seen in "Meet Dave"), Herb Ritts, Charles Boswell, David Michael Sterling, Michael Melvin, Tony Barr, Stuart Nisbet (last seen in "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot"), Gary Ballard (last seen in "Vice" (2018)), Randy Pelish, Neil Summers (last seen in "Appaloosa"), Sonny King (last seen in "Eraser"), Amanda Borden, Eve Brenner (last seen in "Walk of Shame"), Joseph Cole, Richard Kwong, Gary Lee Davis (last seen in "Coming Home"), Bill Barretta (last heard in "Muppets Haunted Mansion"), Randall Dudley, Sheldon Feldner (last seen in "The Star Chamber"), Fred Franklin, Danny Kovacs (last seen in "Copycat"), Joseph Lucas, William Hall (last seen in "Fathers Day")
RATING: 5 out of 10 objections overruled
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