Intense Psychological Drama with Faith and Doubt to the Jury System

Rating: 6/10 (30 May 2004)

(Possible Spoilers Included)
In this acclaimed classic courtroom film, a simple one-room setting creates an unbelievably intense psychological drama. The screenplay takes full advantage of the jury system; 12 jurors' personalities are incredibly diverse (though to the contemporary audience they are too homogeneous regarding race and gender); tugs-of-war among them take place in various forms (such as one-on-one, a group vs. a group, and one vs. the rest); and the group dynamics keep changing (e.g., a person on one side comes to be on the other).
The process that one juror's initiation upsets the presupposed verdict suggests that the filmmakers have both faith and doubt to the jury system. Without the system, one judge's decision would never be based on anything similar to 12 jurors' varied perspectives, which in the film's case lead the verdict of not guilty. At the same time, the film portrays the arbitrary nature of the system; nothing but a chance brings Henry Fonda's Juror #8, who is the only one to believe the defendant is innocent at the beginning, to the jury.