They have twelve scraps of paper... Twelve chances to kill!

Rating: 9/10 (25 August 2016)

The premise for this film is fairly straightforward. Twelve men are elected to sit on a jury of a murder trial for a young boy who is accused of killing his father. Almost the entire film is centred in one room, where the men, if they unanimously vote that the young boy is guilty then he is sentenced to death. Initially, the vote is guilty, 11-1 Reasonable doubt is called into question and the men must discuss their reasons for their votes.
I particularly liked this film as the situation is something that is very believable. One of the first reasons that the men give is 'he just looked guilty' due to the boy being from the slum areas, another is a man has his own personal reasons for his vote. I've always had a personal belief that jury duty is an odd premise. It seems strange that a number of complete strangers are able to determine the fate of another human without their own personal background being known. For example, someone gets accused of domestic abuse. Several of the jurors are unfortunate enough to have also had a history of domestic abuse in their life, either on the giving or receiving end - their judgement is going to be clouded by their own experiences and they are not going to be impartial to the accused. I suppose the issue is, what is the alternative then to strangers on a jury in these cases? It also doesn't seem right that one judge should be responsible for making this decision.
The acting in this film isn't the best I've ever seen. Some of the characters over emphasise their lines and their character portrayal, but the 'main' juror, Henry Fonda, is wonderful. His character is deep, sympathetic and a real interest to watch on the screen. This is the first film I've ever seen with him in it, but it hopefully won't be the last as I go delving for more. Lee J. Cobb is another one of the main characters, and plays a very different part to Henry Fonda. His character is unlikeable, loud, brash and rude - and you're meant to hate him, and you truly do! The ending is slightly predictable, but you're not sure how they're going to get there which continues to make the movie enjoyable.