Murder One

I grew up 20 miles from where those murders were committed. I am anti-death penalty. But if anyone ever deserved to be executed, it was Carl Isaacs. He and his friends murdered 5 unsuspecting men and 1 pregnant woman who was also raped her and left her to die in an ant bed. All were members of the Alday family of Seminole Co., GA.

Even into the late 1980's (the murders took place in 1973), he said that the only way the Aldays "stood out" was "being killed by me." His frequent use of descriptions like "rednecks" and "backwoods" to describe the innocent and unsuspecting people that he and his friends murdered as well as their survivors, only added to salt to the deep wounds of an entire community. For 30 years, through appeals, not on grounds of innocence but on technicalities, a town of 2,800 people was forced to continue to pay for administrative costs during the many court procedures introduced on behalf of an admitted and unrepentant murderer. Meanwhile, because the men of the family were all executed by Isaacs and his gang, the surviving widows and children saw their lives fall into bankruptcy because they couldn't farm their land alone. For them, the pain of those events from that night lasted not just that one night, but for 30 years.

This movie's depiction of local people played right into Carl's description. Instead of showing good, decent, honest, hard-working, community-building people, they show a goober type of fellow waving stupidly from a tractor as a Isaacs and his gang drove by.

The movie doesn't spend much time on the Aldays, the only innocent people in this movie. Instead, it almost seems to invite sympathy for people who either murdered and raped or served as accomplices to all crimes committed on that fateful night.

i have yet to see the movie, but i must reply to some of the previous comments. the people portrayed in the movie are my family. and as for "needless violence"-these people were needlessly murdered. Mary was forced to watch her family die. she was raped. she was lead to believe she was being let go and then shot in the back. i don't know how the movie goes, i don't know how the book goes. but i know they were all brutally murdered and i can guarantee you all that if those bastards ever escape jail again, they will be murdered themselves... people are still extremely upset about what happened and believe that justice has not been served...

The characters and incidents depicted in the movie are all too real. Carl Isaacs was executed May 6, 2003 for his role in the 1973 murders. There are discrepancies that always arise when trying to tell a true story, but the basic facts are there. The murders in the movie are brutal and senseless. The actual murders were just that. Still, the movie rates no more than a 5 out of 10. Better than much fare found on TV, but not much better.

I found this movie interesting for one primary reason: I am 99% sure it depicts a real event. I went to college in Atlanta, Georgia in the early 1980's, and sometime (I'd guess 1982) in that span, the local news covered this real incident, which I think happened in the 1960's. It had become a current issue in 1982 because the perpetrators were still behind bars, and I think the debate over the death penalty was involved. From what I remember of both the actual event and the movie, it follows the true story reasonably well. I certainly got the impression that the incident was a gruesome as the movie depicts it.

Like I had expected, this turned out to be a fairly ordinary film. However, some good performances and some tense scenes did help to make this a decent time-killer. Really, this was little more than a barrage of needless violence, but for what it was, it wasn't too bad. That having been said, I have a feeling that this film will quickly fade from my memory, since a routine plot makes the movie seem slow during the times that innocent people aren't being attacked.