Absolutely touching

Rating: 10/10 (20 May 2011)

There are very few movies that challenge the very essence of humanity, but Twelve Angry Men is among them, likely at the forefront. Just a bit of inquiry by Juror #8 (Henry Fonda) is enough to turn all of convention onto its head, and what ensues is a manifesto of the human thought process. First he is treated as the village idiot -- "There's always one.....", then through common reasoning and questioning he gains some momentum among the jury until he has eventually won the vote of all eleven of his peers.
The characters in that room represent a microcosm of greater society: you've got the righteous yet somewhat humble speaker of truth, the socially cold yet honorable logical thinker, the wise old man, the baseball-loving hedonist, the jaded self-proclaimed sadist, the cynical old man, the earnest hard-working foreigner, and the unimposing supposed leader (the foreman) who is among the quieter individuals who form the background audience to the great debate that carries the story. This portrayal of society makes Twelve Angry Men suitable for all viewers, and it may as well be mandatory for all people to watch this movie as its adventurous trek through morality has been and forever will be relevant to human relations.
Twelve Angry Men is a longstanding testament to the spirit of originality and inquiry -- questioning the judgment of another rather than weakly conforming to it. This theme is again and again visited within the dialogue of the movie, as juror #8 is bashed by a couple of his fellow jurors for trusting his gut, or forming unconfirmed yet sensible hypotheses. But it's this pioneering spirit which achieves basically all the great feats that we reach -- it's how the judicial system and greater democracy was set into place in this country, for example. The gradual conversion of each juror from a "guilty" vote to a "not guilty" vote shows you the potential for the realization of truth that lies in each man in this world, as well as their varying methods of reaching it. For some it was reached by plain logic (juror #4), for others it was through direct empathy. Some men leapt aboard the bandwagon only once it had gained some might, and some only came over after having held onto their original view until the bitter end.....having been blinded from common sense by their own distorted emotions (juror #3). Regardless, every juror lands somewhere on the spectrum and is entitled to their own unique view, just as ordinary people are in society.
There are almost too many unforgettable moments/lines in Twelve Angry Men to count all of them.....from the hullabaloo that ensues when the jury first learns of the lone "not guilty" vote at the beginning, to the re-enactment of the old man limping down his hallway, to the convincing of juror #4 through the "glasses" ordeal, to the final stand and glare of the eleven jurors at juror #3. There's the final exchange of the movie, when jurors #8 and #9 exchange names and "meet" for the first time (telling you something about how dehumanizing and tense things got in that small room). Oh and speaking of that small jurors' room -- virtually the entire movie takes place in there! On paper that idea seems somewhat ludicrous for a movie, but the compelling nature of the plot somehow made me forget how physically stationary the story is. Cinematographer Boris Kaufman used a brilliant tactic over the duration of the film: he lowered the cameras as the plot continued. At the start we're able to appreciate the size of the long room, and we look down upon the jurors, but by the end each man looms over our view, large than life, as we see him speak, and the walls appear to have closed in on us to create a very cramped and tense atmosphere. Very well done.
Ultimately, this is one of my favorite films, touching the soul of humanity and leading its audience through an entire range of emotions, and all while in a very commonplace setting. Sometimes the simplest premise makes for the most enthralling story, and through superb acting, a terrific screenplay, and innovative cinematography, Twelve Angry Men accomplishes this and lays claim to being one of the greatest films ever made.