1957 is a miracle year.

Rating: 10/10 (11 April 2008)

Despite all the other great events and movies I may not know, since I was born in the 80's, I was awed by the two greatest productions of this year. The bridge on the river Kwai and 12 Angry Men. Both of them has enough power to blow you out of your mind and possibly your seat, but hopefully not your window :) This production is of course not a very big one, not involving any CGI or action sequences. But, it just proved again a movie should essentially be justified by its story, not the visual effects, unless you can make all the visual effects a part of the movie, which will not be discussed here. 12 Angry Men is, to my surprise, not really a "court" movie, but instead, a jury room movie. 99% of the story was told in the same room, showing 12 men talking with each other in probably the real time. When I realized this, I was fearing the next 90 minutes could be a boring torture. But I was sooooo wrong.
The interactions of all the characters are simply awesome. Henry Fonda is not less and not more than what he intends to be--a good guy. Thruogh the 90 minutes all he was doing was to bring justice and truth back to the eyes of jury, I was surprised by how advanced the director's cinematographic and editing were. The atmosphere of the jury room got more and more intense and it seemed the truth and righteousness was being enforced by some unseen hands. people may become stubborn, some of the jury even was so negligent that they never really cared about the death and life of the accused. But, this is still not the concentration of the movie. The movie, is a 1 and a half hours miracle about fate being changed, not about stubborn people's mind being changed.
Simply brilliant. And truly meaningful. The movie inspires people in many ways, including being a good man, which is most wanted in this century, I mean the 21st century.
10/10.