Excellent!

Rating: Null/10 (23 January 2003)

My 10th-grade class just watched "12 Angry Men" this week in civics class since we've been studying about the US judicial branch, and our teacher wanted to show us how prejudice can effect a verdict. But anyway, as for the movie itself, I really enjoyed it. It's about a jury trying to decide the verdict of a murder case where a teenage boy stabbed his father with a knife. At first the jurors all have a "let's get this over with and go home" attitude and the vote is 11 to 1 guilty, but the one juror who questions the kid's guilt presents his arguments and suddenly all 12 jurors are arguing and debating over the evidence. The whole movie, except for the first and last scenes, takes place in the jury room, in a claustrophobic Hitchcock-esque manner which leaves the drama of the movie entirely up to the talent of the actors. The actors are all excellent and bring the dialogue to life as the jurors' personalities clash and they review the evidence over and over to ensure justice. When I think of "classic Hollywood movies", it's movies like this that come to mind. I reccomend "12 Angry Men" as entertainment and also as a reminder to us all to take our duties as American citizens seriously.