Simplicity At Its Best

Rating: 10/10 (4 April 2019)

12 Angry Men is a courtroom drama premised on twelve jurors who have to reach a unanimous decision on a murder case: if the suspect is guilty or not guilty. This premise and its plot resolution was set to be simple and straightforward from the very start. However, Lumet was able to dive into such detail and themes with so little to start with.
One of the film's merits is how the jurors progress from argument to argument seamlessly. The techniques in negotiation presented drove the argument and plot. As Juror 8 negotiated for alternative perspectives, they took another look at the evidence. They revealed the ambiguity in the evidence, leading to reasonable doubt in the decision to be guilty. One such technique of negotiation is the use of objective criteria which involves pulling the criteria away from each individual's opinions, setting the negotiation to be objective and logically sound. This was especially suitable as the negotiation was targeted at Juror 4 who had established himself as a logical man. His vote for guilty was on the basis that the female witness's testimony was "unshakeable", in which other jurors agreed as well. This set the foundation for the objective criteria: the woman saw the crime happen, and there was no doubt about the testimony's accuracy. Eventually, Juror 9 noticed the marks on her nose made only by eye-glasses, pointing out that the woman had questionable eyesight. This was an undeniable situation as Juror 4 himself wore glasses, and acknowledged this fact as well. The woman's eyesight proved to be reasonably doubtful, making her testimony inaccurate. Consequently, he was negotiated into voting for acquittal. This also proved to be an important technique, as it increased the votes for acquittal, eleven to one. The principle revealed crucial details, as it was not a fight for dominance, but rather a joint search to find proof based on the objective criteria.