Yes, there was a Henri Young, but he was a murderer, stole a lot more than five dollars, and was a complete trouble maker. Almost nothing in the movie was factual. In fact he might even still be alive. Read this...
http://www.nps.gov/alcatraz/tours/circ-nav/hyoung.html
The movie was well acted though.
The art of screenwriting isn't supposed to be journalistic. This was a very well written, superbly acted, thoroughly chilling drama. If life could manage all of that in three acts, Hollywood would be bankrupt. But I agree, the real Mr. Young seems to be a little more villain than victim. Alcatraz innocent though? Notice their slant on that link: "Relatively comfortable"? I can only imagine...
shareYou are right. I just thought when it's a "based on a true story" movie it should be a little more true to the source. It would still have been interesting.
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do u know how mindless u sounded just now hazzie
"All prisons should be like Alcatraz, only without all the faults."
thats the point alcatraz had to many faults
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that may be so but prisoners still have rights as they may one day get out and become productive members of society.
shareAlcatraz is one of the few prisons (maybe the only one?) that has no documented escapes. Yes, a few people attempted to escape from Alcatraz but not a single person is known to have escaped and survived. A couple of guys got away, although they are assumed drowned. Even if those couple of guys did get to shore and successfully escaped, this still makes for a very low escape rate, so it's a misnomer to say that it's very "escapable."
Also, while on the surface it is understandable that you would think that prisoners deserve whatever they get while in prison, you should care about the welfare of prisoners because of, first of all, the writ of habeus corpus, which is part of the Constitution of the United States. It basically states that prisoners cannot be excessively punished while in prison; yes, prisoners have rights, and there are a lot of good reasons for this. What if you were arrested for something you didn't do, or arrested for doing something stupid like shoplifting or whatever. Should you be beaten up while in jail or prison? Not only should you worry about innocent people in prison who are being beaten up by some vigilante guard, but you should also have concern for the basic rights of even the worst prisoner. Rest assured that their stay in prison is miserable; being beaten up by guards is not necessary to make it a terrible experience. Also, from the standpoint of operating a prison, when the prisoners feel generally safe then they are generally content and the prison alleviates problems between guards and inmates, and amongst inmates too. Just look at what the character in this movie did after being beaten by guards. It's a vicious cycle.
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Dude... wat the hell r u saying?
"prisoners are there to be punished"
The world is like it is now because of the people like u.
Grow up dude
they did something wrong yes but they still have rights and the prisons should help them... not doing something that they condemned the prisoners.
im just fell sorry for u man... and fot the others who think like him.
That's right, Henry Young wasn't really a saint. Murder in the First wasn't exactly accurate. But, when I rented the DVD I saw "inspired by a true story" instead of "based on a true story" in the beginning. Anyways, "true story" is an oxymoron. Story means make believe.
sharei like that they made him kill the guy with a spoon
shareThe first thing I'll say is that it's impossible to know if the details about Young's stay at Alcatraz are consistent with what is reported on that website. You should always take reports like this with a grain of salt, just as you are doing with the facts about this film.
What I want to know about this story, however, is what exactly in the film is true? I mean really. The explanation from that website almost sounds like a different story. It's really too bad that Hollywood has to constantly make changes like this to a story in their attempts to make it easier to tie into a moralistic narrative. Would it really be so bad to tell us the real story?
Especially when a film is made about a real place and real people, there should be some expectation that the essential parts of the story are accurate. After watching this movie with my dad the other day, he said something like "I never knew there was a story like that from Alcatraz." From a historical perspective, there never was a guy like this and these changes in the story really do a disservice to the viewer and don't give us enough credit.
Growing up in a film family gives me contacts with lots of people. It is a true story. It's a travesty of justice. most belong in jail and punished but not blatant cruelty because the punishers then become just as guilty.
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Maybe he deserved a good kicking, but what does that make of the person who kicks him? Doing bad to him would make the person no better than him.
The best kind of love is the "no matter what" kind.
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