Selfishness, laziness, and personal bias

Rating: Null/10 (1 August 2013)

Eighth grade was my first exposure to 12 Angry Men. My class was reading it as a play, I read the lines of juror number eleven. Shortly after the conclusion of our class read, we watched the film adaptation. I was in eighth grade, I knew it was a great film, but I didn't understand the brilliance of it that I see today. 12 Angry Men's greatest creative strength is the direction- technically. Sidney Lumet has every shot in every scene fitting together creating an effortless flow for the film. However, the greatest weakness the picture has is its hard for the viewer to really settle their inner roots in the it for some reason. The directing doesn't transport our emotions until the second half of the film.
The Good Wife produced en episode in their first season titled Doubt. In a show that studies a defense attorney's efforts to create doubt in a jury's mind, the process of the jury members consolations are shown. I thought it was a brilliant move and we should see more media centric things about juries. That episode glimmers with inspiration from 12 Angry Men, but it lacks the morality, mystery, and humanity found in the play. People mistake character development for spending mass amounts of time with a particular character. I believe character development is to I understand a character, the writing and actor thoroughly explain the person on the page to me. 12 Angry Men develops twelve characters in ninety minutes without even knowing their names.
As each juror slowly changes their verdict in 12 Angry Men, near the middle of the film I was struck, seeing a metaphor occurring mid-film. It all goes back to politics, the jurors willing to believe that the boy on trial is innocent are the liberals and the men who close their mind to any possibility of innocence represent the conservative party. The jurors who may have been judged for the way they talk, what ethnicity they are, their sexual orientation, or if they were just plain old sensitive were the ones who opened their minds up to Juror 7's campaign to examine the case thoroughly. Now 12 Angry Men still lives back in the days where life was religion-centric and things were one way, and one way one only. This is a move that makes 12 Angry Men ahead of its time.
12 Angry Men is a slice to how a jury actually acts to some extent. The thing they always forget, when their minds are clouded with things in their life they are missing due to their obligation to the justice system, is they hold the fate of another man's life. It's not something that can be taken lightly. Reasonable doubt is mistaken with something that proves the accused not guilty. That's not true and 12 Angry Men shines a light on that discussion. What this film is about to me is the laziness, selfishness, and our personal bias hiding our judgment. We all need to take a step back sometimes and really look at the situation for the gray, not black or white. Even laughing here and there, 12 Angry Men is something that may not be the most fun film to watch, but it's certainly an important to see.
Rating: 9/10
Grade: A