Kevin Bacon names his most overlooked movie: “It was a moronic release”
He might be best known these days for mobile phone adverts and being connected to every single person on the planet, but Kevin Bacon has had a stunning acting career. His very first film role was in National Lampoon’s Animal House, which isn’t bad at all. He followed this up with Friday the 13th, Diner, and Footloose. After a few years in the wilderness, not helped by a run-in with famous con man Bernie Madoff, he has since returned to prominence with appearances in the likes of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F and MaXXXine.
With a run as long and fruitful as this one, it’s not surprising that Bacon has a range of feelings about his body of work. He has spoken before about Paul Verhoeven’s Hollow Man, which he called the most ‘physically taxing’ role he’s ever undertaken. Then there’s the movie that he thought deserved more love, which he outlined to Us Weekly.
“The role I’m most proud of is Murder in the First,” he told the publication (via Mary Ellen Mark. “But it’s also very par for the course ‑ the movie that I’m most proud of, nobody saw. It was a moronic release ‑ they put it out after all the fun Christmas movies. That’s my nuts in a lifeshell.”
Murder in the First is a historical legal drama from director Mark Rocco. Bacon stars as a real-life figure, Henri Young, a young man who ends up in Alcatraz prison after stealing a tiny amount of cash to feed his starving sister. Following a harrowing experience in solitary confinement, Young murders another inmate with a spoon. It’s up to defence lawyer James Stamphill (Christian Slater) to fight Young’s case and take down the crooked institution that drove his young client to madness.
Alongside Bacon and Slater, the movie boasts a stellar cast, including Gary Oldman, Brad Dourif, William H. Macy, and R Lee Emery. Unfortunately, a strong line-up and intriguing premise weren’t enough to get people through the doors. Murder in the First was a box office bust, making just a smidge over its $20 million budget at the box office. Critics did not share Bacon’s enthusiasm for the picture, as reviews were middling. Although, most press was very complimentary of Kev’s individual performance, so at least he had that to hang his hat on.
One of the reasons this movie might have gotten lost in the shuffle is because Bacon was in another big release that same year. He played another real figure, astronaut Jack Swigert, in Ron Howard’s phenomenal space drama Apollo 13. For his part in the piece, which came out just five months after Murder in the First, Bacon received even more praise and his share of a Screen Actor’s Guild award for ‘Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture’. It’s safe to say that, by the time the year was through, nobody was talking about poor Henri Young anymore if they ever were in the first place.
When you’ve been in as many huge pictures as Bacon has, then there are bound to be some that slip through the cracks of public perception. Hopefully ,he can take comfort in the knowledge that his most devoted fans share his appreciation, as Murder in the First enjoys something of a cult status these days.
