Editing I Want to Live! (section)

===Critical response===
[[File:Susan Hayward - 1959 Oscar-1.jpg|thumb|right|upright=.9|Hayward received an [[Academy Awards|Oscar]] for her portrayal of Barbara Graham.]]
Upon release, ''I Want to Live!'' was met with a largely favorable critical response, with many critics heralding the film as an "indictment against capital punishment," citing its clinical, harrowing depiction of execution.{{sfn|Cairns|2013|p=120}} Producer [[Walter Wanger]] received numerous congratulatory letters praising the film after its release, including those from writers [[Arthur Miller]], [[Paddy Chayefsky]], [[Leon Uris]] and [[Albert Camus]], all of whom were ardent opponents of capital punishment.{{sfn|Cairns|2013|p=121}}

''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' magazine published a favorable review: "There is no attempt to gloss the character of Barbara Graham, only an effort to understand it through some fine irony and pathos. She had no hesitation about indulging in any form of crime or vice that promised excitement on her own, rather mean, terms ... Hayward brings off this complex characterization. Simon Oakland, as Montgomery, who first crucified Barbara Graham in print and then attempted to undo what he had done, underplays his role with assurance."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://variety.com/1957/film/reviews/i-want-to-live-1200419124/ |title=I Want to Live! |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |date=December 31, 1957|access-date=March 24, 2008 |author=<!--Not stated-->}}</ref>

Film critic [[Bosley Crowther]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' wrote: "Miss Hayward plays it superbly, under the consistently sharp direction of Robert Wise, who has shown here a stunning mastery of the staccato realistic style. From a loose and wise-cracking B-girl she moves onto levels of cold disdain and then plunges down to depths of terror and bleak surrender as she reaches the end. Except that the role does not present us a precisely pretty character, its performance merits for Miss Hayward the most respectful applause."<ref name="nyt58">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1958/11/19/archives/vivid-performance-by-susan-hayward-actress-stars-in-i-want-to-live.html|last=Crowther| first=Bosley|author-link=Bosley Crowther|work=[[The New York Times]]|title= Vivid Performance by Susan Hayward; Actress Stars in ''I Want to Live''|date=November 19, 1958|access-date=March 24, 2008}}</ref>

Gene Blake, the reporter who covered the actual murder trial for the ''[[Los Angeles Mirror|Los Angeles Daily Mirror]]'', called the film "a dramatic and eloquent piece of propaganda for the abolition of the death penalty."<ref>{{cite news|last=Blake|first=Gene|url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2008/11/barbara-graham.html|title=Barbara Graham case revisited, November 28, 1958|date=November 28, 1958|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Mirror|Los Angeles Daily Mirror]]|via=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=July 19, 2018}}</ref>

By March 1959, ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' noted that the popularity of the film and of Mandel's and Mulligan's albums "prompted a rush of jazz film scores" and cited as examples [[Duke Ellington]]'s score for ''[[Anatomy of a Murder]]'', the release of ''[[The Five Pennies]]'' (a biopic about the jazz band leader [[Red Nichols]]) and the 1960 documentary ''[[Jazz on a Summer's Day]]''.<ref>{{cite magazine| magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]|date=March 9, 1959|page=42|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ux4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA42|title=Late 50s Bid for Posterity Fame as Real 'Jazz Age'|first=June|last=Bundy|access-date=August 11, 2010}}</ref>

In a 1993 reappraisal, film critic [[Danny Peary]] wrote that Hayward is "...the actress of that era [the 1940s and '50s] who most needs rediscovery, and the best film to start with is ''I Want to Live!''."{{sfn|Peary|1993|p=146}}

The review aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]] reports a 94% approval rating based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_want_to_live |title=I Want to Live! (1958) |work=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |publisher=[[Fandango Media]]|access-date=November 13, 2022}}</ref>