Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

HotToastyRag After four nominations for Best Actress, Susan Hayward finally took home an Oscar in 1959 for her bold performance in I Want to Live! She was very good in this film, and there really wasn't any other actress in Hollywood who could have played the part, but I always wished she would have won the Oscar in 1955 for I'll Cry Tomorrow. You'll be hard-pressed to find a better performance in Hollywood history.In this true story that finally won Suzy the gold, she plays Barbara Graham, a coarse woman with a bit of an unsavory past. She falls in with the wrong crowd, and when they're all found at the scene of the crime, she's arrested for murder. She's one tough broad, and won't take her death sentence lying down. The film follows her as she fights for appeals and maintains her innocence. This isn't a feel-good movie, but given the subject matter, it's not really expected to be. It's a bleak black-and-white film, which is perfect because of the black-and-white fate of Suzy. The reason why I Want to Live! is so special and so uniquely Suzy is because she injects a vulnerability into the character instead of making her a one-dimensional tough broad. Yes, Susan has that fantastic low voice and that fantastic shoulder-first walk, but she also breaks down in tears as says goodbye to her infant son.Nominated for Best Director, Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography, and Sound, this is a universally hailed classic from the 1950s. Even to modern audiences, it's praised as incredibly realistic, often compared to Dead Man Walking. It's rather difficult to watch, though, so even though Suzy won the Oscar for it, it's not one I like to see over and over again. But since she does give an excellent, heart wrenching performance, and since she's my favorite classic actress, I do watch it every couple of years. It's hard to stay away from her beauty, strength, and talent, and since I've only ever seen her in one comedy, I know I'm in for a heavy drama when I pop in a Susan Hayward movie. She really is the queen of comedy; as Rupert Everett says in My Best Friend's Wedding, "The misery, the exquisite tragedy, the Susan Hayward of it all."

Bill-16 Just like the phony and 1/4 truth "Birdman of Alcatraz", "I Want to Live" is Hollywood trying to preach to the simple citizen type Americans.I guess every generation needs to learn just how corrupt and political Hollywood is. They have no room to preach about Morals.Barbara Graham was not only was guilty of Murder by being involved in conspiring to rob Mabel Monohan, she personally murdered the elderly women. The Jury Says So!This is Hollywood's Statement on the horrors of the Death Penalty. I may agree with them, but lying to the American people and the world doesn't help. The Truth Will Out and you end up hurting the cause.Now to the movie, it is actually well done and Hayward certainly deserved her Academy Award. I have been a Simon Oakland fan all my life and this is very first. The other Reviewers covered the excellent acting and riveting ending.. Gripping is my word for the final 1/2hr.Just remember, Hollywood is filled with disgusting rotten people just like any other business. It is just when them businesses try and preach to Us simple folk how we should vote and causes we should support that they overstep. They Should best Keep Their Mouth Shut and just entertain us.

russellalancampbell There is little that I could add to the other reviews and, if you read them, most will attest to the power of "I Want to Live". This is a jarring, harrowing film from the acting to the jazz score. It is brutally honest in its sordid and ugly depictions of the seedier side of American life - the lowlifes, junkies, "goodtime girls", small-time crims and even a family man taking a walk on the wild side in the opening scene. The preparations and procedures related to capital punishment are even more chillingly depicted than those of "In Cold Blood". The camera angles and the jazz score add to the uncomfortable and off-kilter events of this other world that most of us know about and sometimes visit but do not inhabit. Lastly, Susan Hayward's performance is shattering. "I Want to Live" is a once seen never forgotten experience.

vitaleralphlouis When are people who commit murder the true victims, rather than the murdered person lying face down in the street? Answer: When you're watching a Fodder for Liberal Empty-Heads movie from Hollywood 1958 -- a time when the sacred-liberal-cause-of-the-day was the way "society" intrudes on criminals and fails to empathize with their lifestyle.I Want to Live was a particularly obnoxious liberal rant whereby we are supposed to shed crocodile tears for poor Susan Hayward, a person convicted -- with others -- in the robbery/murder of two men. Trapped like a rat in her prison cell, Miss Hayward has ample opportunity to rant and rave in allegedly Academy Award level acting. Gag me, please.There is no mention of -- nor compassion for -- the two dead victims. Heavens, no. According to this movie Hayward is the only victim, and her immoral lawyers will play any trick to help her avoid -- also breaking their arms with self-congratulatory back-pats.Liberals did a lot of damage to society in that era, with propaganda films that undermined justice and kept criminals in circulation. And they're darn proud of it.