An outstanding courtroom drama thriller which benefits greatly from tight direction, a literate script and superb acting from a first-rate cast

Rating: 10/10 (30 July 2006)

A teenage Puerto Rican boy from the slums is on trial for allegedly murdering his own father. Eleven of the twelve jurors are certain that he's guilty, but one token odd man out dissenting juror (beautifully played with subtle understatement by Henry Fonda) has his doubts. The juror gets everyone else to question their motives and more heavily scrutinize every last minute detail of the seemingly cut and dried case.
Director Sidney Lumet, working from Reginald Rose's smart, literate and incisive script, further aided by Boris Kaufman's sharp black and white cinematography and Kenyon Hopkins' spare, unobtrusive score, works wonders with the simple premise, placing a keen and intimate emphasis on the exceptionally colorful and distinctive dozen characters. The uniformly marvelous acting from a bang-up ensemble cast qualifies as a substantial sterling asset: Fonda and Lee J. Cobb are both terrific as radically opposing guys who are at continual loggerheads with each other while Ed Begley (incredibly fearless as a despicable racist jerk), Jack Warden, Joseph Sweeney (simply lovely as the old man), George Voskovec, Martin Balsam, Jack Klugman, John Fiedler, Robert Webber, E.G. Marshall and the criminally underrated Edward Binns all lend top-drawer support in equally meaty roles.
The twelve individual jurors serve as a very revealing and insightful microcosm of our justice system in particular and our society in general, representing all the various flaws, strengths and quirks of our culture which range from blithe indifference (Warden's boorish baseball fan, Webber's slick advertising executive) to cold pragmatism (Marshall's prissy intellectual) to meek passivity (Fiedler's soft-spoken wimp) to foul prejudice (Begley's unforgettably odious hatemonger, Cobb's seething ball of roaring rage and resentment) to true blue responsible patriotism (Fonda's calm voice of liberal reason, Sweeney's supportive old man, Voskovec's proud adopted American immigrant). Kaufman's gorgeously crisp photography tremendously heightens the considerable tension, palpably evoking a sweaty, uncomfortable and claustrophobic sweltering hot atmosphere that's as gripping as it is convincing. In the hands of a lesser cast and director the story could have been flat and stagy. But Lumet's tight direction and the seamless ensemble acting from an amazing cast effortlessly blend together to create a crackling sense of absorbing drama and rip-snorting energy that's constantly engrossing and exciting throughout. An undeniable classic.