12 Angry Men

Rating: 8/10 (28 July 2007)

One of the all time classics! The story is about 12 jury members in a room for about 90 minutes (real time) to decide the open and shut case of a young boy of 18 years killing his father. There are 11 votes confirming guilty and 1 for not-guilty. The whole movie is about how the 12 votes finally reach 11 confirming non-guilty and 1 for guilty, until the last one too gives in to an anonymous verdict that the boy is not guilty of his father's murder.
The movie was delicately presented. As audience we find that the case that was to be fought in the court-room was fought among the jurors. Each and every juror was aware of all the facts of the case and everyone was on the same page, except one  Juror no. 8 (Henry Ford). The movie explores the value of one life on looking minutely at the known events and unfolding them in better light for audience to understand and know that what seems truth often is not  if you look closely at it.
The movie is shot in a single room that is hot, humid and sweaty  and halfway through it starts raining outside. The enigma of the 12 jurors, the ding-dong dallying between guilty and not-guilty, the peeling of the case layer by layer with new discussions crossing personal experiences and relation to the case was fascinating to watch.
Henry Ford acts with such anxiousness that you are bitten by his conviction of not-guilty the moment he speaks his doubts by saying  I do not know, I am not sure. That starts the mastery roller-coaster to a finale that is hard to take the eyes off.
The Director Sidney Lumet does a fantastic job in I think (most probably) converting this stage drama into big screen canvass with eminent 12 actors. All of them have acted poignantly well in their well written characters and mannerisms. One can see their upbringings while they talk and that is marvelous.
Wonderful movie, normally I hesitate to give movies more than 8 stars, but for this I will give (Stars 8.25 out of 10)