The hope of democracy

Rating: 10/10 (4 September 2007)

As brilliant a presentation of the arts of logic and conversation in a situation of severe stress as one can imagine. The dialog is razor sharp, the characters well-drawn, and director Lumet, cameraman Kaufman and editor Lerner have worked miracles with a cramped space that doesn't lose any sense of claustrophobia in the process. Although one can certainly take the message as having to do with inherent problems in having a death penalty as a rule of law, there is a deeper message still: does not justice, in a democratic society, demand of us to think clearly? to uncover and expunge our individual prejudices? to confront the enormous weight of responsibility as coolly and objectively as possible? If the answers to those questions must come up negative, then democracy is a false hope and we should abandon it and give ourselves over to the nearest group of elitists who can guaranty us bread and circuses.
Right now, with a right-wing junta in power in Washington, many Americans seem satisfied with such a possible result; they seem to forget that the result would be the same under a left-wing junta as well. The hope of democracy is that government is neither left nor right, but every day, that it allows all of us some share in shaping our own destinies personally and collectively.
"12 angry men" is thus a film filled with hope - hope for ourselves, each as individuals, but also hope for our future, our children and the possibilities they represent.
If this hope is false, it is still certainly preferable to any of the lies spewed forth by the American media today.