Masterpiece by all standards

Rating: 10/10 (10 April 2019)

The prerequisite for a death sentence is an unanimous decision of the jurors: guilty/ not guilty. Here, we see an extraordinary proof of the fact how much stronger the good is than the evil. The actors play their roles very well indeed. The (verbal) struggle lasts an hour and a half - of each individual against himself or against all others.
In the beginnig there is only one man advocating reasonable doubt. And that one as a broom sweeps away the compulsive "opinions" of his - at first, antagonistic - co-speakers. He doesn't encroach upon anybody else's truth, nor does he try to manipulate them, and yet... He smoothly leads the other members of the jury to a path of consideration and reflection, where they come to new findings by themselves.
I experience the end of the film as a phenomenal display of a redemption/atonement, of restoring a peace with oneself - moment when a man becomes aware of his own dark side, finally accepting it.
The two diametrally opposed roles are symbolically presented as if they were father and son, who finally surmount all distances in order to come nearer to one another in the end.
Out of the unexplored depths a hatred towards the ones who think differently evaporates, spreading to this group of people and to people outside this room, very much the same as the steam evaporates from the depths of thermal springs.
Who is better, who is good and who is bad? The questions and answers that arise in the Winnetou-movies or in the competitive games also in the modern time. "He is such...". We hear one of the jurors when he tries to manipulate the first "dissident". "They're all the same", he answers. Why didn't he say "We are"? Well, some of us already know the answer to that, too. Others are surely going to get to it sometime.
In short, a film I can only heartily recommend to watch, especially for those who love and cherish creative doubt.