Henry Fonda, the Big Manipulator

Rating: 8/10 (24 May 2004)

***THIS COMMENT IS A SPOILER***
True, the acting is great, the dialogue is great for most of the time (except for some unrealistic/wooden lines), but what spoiled the whole movie for me is that in the end they acquitted an obviously guilty defendant. Even with all the testimonies not as reliable as they seemed in the beginning, who else could have done it?
Although very interesting from a sociological as well as psychological perspective (it was the Freudian epoch, you can tell by every second line), 12 Angry Men leaves a bad taste in your mouth because in the end Henry Fonda saved a murderer, AND HE KNEW IT ALL THE TIME. He was just against the death penalty, and very cleverly persuaded (manipulated) the jury employing group psychology. However any reasonable member would have sticked to his opinion. Some of them just wavered to easily, which is another flaw of this still quite good and interesting classic. 5/10.