Deserves to be in the top 10

Rating: 10/10 (10 November 2012)

What powerful and hard-hitting cinema! There is so much said and conveyed directly and indirectly within a mere 96 odd minutes! I, for one, was neither ready for nor expectant of such a treat when I started watching "12 Angry Men". But boy, did it hold my attention within that short span!
Let me be frank with you. These days I am on a Top-250-movie watching spree. But half of these so-called masterpieces are just packaged trash- packaged either with drugs, sex, homosexuality, underworld, etc. Barring these, there is not much to boast of in most of these movies. I watched Raging Bull and just could not make head or tail of it. I mean, I being an avid movie-watcher, had there been anything excellent about the movie, it would have made itself obvious. Also my expectations for the movie were rather too high. But I just could not bring myself to like this movie. But 12 Angry Men indeed means business when it comes to story, performances and meaning! The focus is entirely on the jury of a murder trial and whether the accused does deserve a benefit of doubt in a previously thought open-and-shut case. As one man is unconvinced of the accused boy's guilt, he elicits his reasons and calls for a discussion. I must mention that character-etching at this point of the movie becomes very important and the movie does excel in this particular requirement. Each of the jurors have a distinctive personality and their own prejudices or indifference. Nothing is forced to churn out a performance, each character dons his role comfortably. There is the leader of the group who drives the discussion smoothly, there is a shy, polite timid person who must always respectfully address others even when angry but still speak out his mind, there is the man who is convinced of the boy's guilt out of personal prejudice, there is the loudmouth old guy who belittles certain people, there are the rational men like the man who was raised in a slum, the painter and others, and there is the man who has no interest whatsoever in the matter. And there is Henry Fonda as the man who is the voice of reason in the entire jury.
The storytelling is riveting and at the end of it, I was yearning for more. A simple but outstanding movie! Move over The Godfather, Pulp Fiction- I rate this one higher in all counts of movie-making...