Excellent performances that stand the test of time....

Rating: 10/10 (14 January 2007)

I have watched this movie many times. I finally bought the DVD the other day and watched it again! The level of acting and the intensity of all the performances have, without exception, always taken my breath away. It is a movie that I love and never tire of watching.
You forget, as you watch the movie, that pretty much the entire movie takes place in one room. Movies today, actors today, would not be able to maintain the level of suspense that this movie created and hold your attention for the entire hour and 36 minutes. It starts off slowly, and you become part of the jury stuck in that "jury room", frustrated as one man holds out because "he is not sure".
Henry Fonda gives an amazing performance as the one-man holdout but all the actors give tour de force performances, and you sit mesmerized as one by one they are all converted. But it is Fonda and Lee J Cobbs, as they fight for the hearts and minds of the other jurors that keeps the tension going. The movie was a good social commentary of the times, regarding the racial intolerance, prejudices and biases that governed people in that era. And watching it again today, I would say not much has really changed!