Simple Yet Powerful; Movie-Making At Its Finest

Rating: 10/10 (28 January 2003)

Modern movies have convinced us that if a movie doesn't have big budget special effects and lots of action it's not worth watching. If you want to be healed of that viewpoint, "12 Angry Men" is the tonic. Here we have the simplest of movies. Except for the opening and closing couple of minutes this entire movie is set in a jury room, as 12 men debate the fate of a young man charged with murdering his father. Is he guilty or not? Will he be executed or not? The 12 jurors debate the case. And that's it, basically. And it's powerful and fascinating and you won't take your eye off the screen from the moment it starts.
Henry Fonda put on an excellent (if, I thought, a little bit too preachy) performance as Juror Davis, the lone hold out as the movie starts, the vote being 11-1 in favour of guilty. Davis may not be convinced of the young man's innocence, but he sure isn't convinced of his guilt and he sets out to convince the others to give the kid a break. As good as Fonda was, though, Lee J. Cobb stole the show as Juror Number 3, an angry, hateful and vengeful man who lashes out at the "bleeding hearts" as they start to be convinced by Davis' arguments. An excellent supporting cast (including the likes of E.G. Marshall, Jack Warden and Jack Klugman among others) also put on wonderful performances.
I thought the movie was summed up perfectly at the very end. As Davis is leaving the courthouse, he's met by Juror McCardle (Joseph Sweeney). They introduce themselves to each other (they are the only two jurors named in the movie) and then go their separate ways. These twelve men who held the life of another man in their hands didn't have a clue who each other were and would probably never see each other again. But for this brief period of time they could hold us fixated, even if we didn't know who they were.
Movie-making at its finest.
10/10