Movies Like Murder in the First

If you liked Murder in the First (1995), a crime and drama movie directed by Marc Rocco, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
The Enforcer (1976)
★ 6.7/10Also crime and drama
Dirty Harry Callahan returns again, this time saddled with a rookie female partner. Together, they must stop a terrorist group consisting of angry Vietnam veterans.
2
Rampage (1987)
★ 6/10Also crime and drama
Liberal district attorney decides to seek the death penalty for a man who slaughtered a family at Christmastime, then drank their blood. He escapes, though, and starts killing again.
3
Felon (2008)
★ 7.1/10Also crime and drama
A family man convicted of killing an intruder must cope with life afterward in the violent penal system.
4
The Life of David Gale (2003)
★ 7.4/10Also drama and crime
A man against capital punishment is accused of murdering a fellow activist and is sent to death row.
5
Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
★ 7.5/10Also drama
San Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape from there, Frank and other inmates…
6
The Mauritanian (2021)
★ 7.4/10Also drama
The true story of the Mauritanian Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who was held at the U.S military's Guantanamo Bay detention center without charges for over a decade and sought help from a defense attorney for his release.
7
Convict (2014)
★ 6.5/10Also crime and drama
Set in the dark and old Parramatta prison built by the original convicts our lead character Ray a war veteran finds himself serving 18 months for manslaughter after defending his fiance. He soon realizes that the…
8
Lock Up (1989)
★ 6.8/10Also crime and drama
Frank Leone is nearing the end of his prison term for a relatively minor crime. Just before he is paroled, however, Warden Drumgoole takes charge. Drumgoole was assigned to a hell-hole prison after his administration…
9
Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
★ 7.5/10Also drama and crime
After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud's life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby…
10
Sleepers (1996)
★ 7.6/10Also crime and drama
Two gangsters seek revenge on the state jail worker who during their stay at a youth prison sexually abused them. A sensational court hearing takes place to charge him for the crimes.
11
Brubaker (1980)
★ 7.1/10Also crime and drama
The new warden of a small prison farm in Arkansas tries to clean it up of corruption after initially posing as an inmate.
12
Marshall (2017)
★ 7.3/10Also drama
Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, battles through one of his career-defining cases.
13
Nowhere to Run (1993)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
Escaped convict Sam Gillen single-handedly takes on ruthless developers who are determined to evict a widow with two young children.
14
Sleeping Dogs (2024)
★ 7/10Also crime and drama
Roy Freeman, an ex-homicide detective with a fractured memory, is forced to revisit a case he can't remember. As a man's life hangs in the balance on death row, Freeman must piece together the brutal evidence from a…
15
Faster (2010)
★ 6.4/10Also crime and drama
After 10 years in prison, Driver is now a free man with a single focus - hunting down the people responsible for brutally murdering his brother.
16
The Last Castle (2001)
★ 7.2/10Also drama
A court-martialed general rallies together 1200 inmates to rise against the system that put him away.
17
Cape Fear (1991)
★ 7.3/10Also drama and crime
Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape…
18
A Time to Kill (1996)
★ 7.4/10Also crime and drama
A young lawyer defends a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his 10-year-old daughter, sparking a rebirth of the KKK.
19
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)
★ 7/10Also drama and crime
A chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy, from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.
20
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
★ 7.7/10Also drama and crime
When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's…