Utter cinematic perfection!

Rating: 10/10 (8 September 2009)

Sidney Lumet's ultimate masterpiece "12 Angry Men" is a paramount in film history and is certainly the most memorable of courtroom dramas, a film that stands true to what intelligent, perfectly-made cinema ought to be.
The plot is simple enough. It's about twelve men from different social backgrounds and jobs who make up the jury of a murder trial for an 18-year old kid who has allegedly stabbed his father in cold blood. They (the jury) must now retire to a private chamber and discuss the verdict before sentencing the murderer to either death or freedom. The entire film, then, takes place inside this chamber and follows the arguments and quite heated discussions between these twelve angry men, as they attempt to reach an unanimous vote.
From the start, while the men accommodate themselves in the room, we're introduced to them and their personalities, their likes, and basically we gather enough information to discern the type of person each of them is like. Also, they are never identified by their names, but are referred to according to how they were sitting in the trial, with a number from 1 to 12. It is in this setting of anonymity, of a locked room which is practically boiling in heat, that twelve different personalities clash, different points of view are alternately objectified and refuted, and the future or doom of a man is tactfully decided.
It's a masterpiece, I tell you. The screenplay is sent from cinema heaven (Reginald Rose is a masterful screenwriter), for what begins as a discussion to eliminate all possible doubts becomes a passionate, gripping and utterly suspenseful probing into a different area of human bias. The ball is bounced back and forth among different subjects, and it's such a harrowing game they play that we watch transfixed through the entire duration of the film, uncertain of anything and equally unsure what to make of it. Is the kid really guilty or is he innocent? No one knows, they merely speculate, and like one of them says, "Who knows what could be worse: sending an innocent kid to his death or letting a cold-blooded murderer free to do as he wishes?" The theme is searingly vivisected and analyzed, and you'll find your own morals, ideas and reasonings both questioned and assured in a mind-blowing way.
Apart from the terrific screenplay (enhanced by rapid-fire, witty dialogue), Sidney Lumet has done wonders with space and cinematography. The fact that such delicate and controversial topics are being dealt in a stifling hot room by twelve men who are rapidly loosing their patience deals for an emotional powerhouse. Nothing can be avoided. Also, the camera angles, the focus of the camera itself, makes the room even seem smaller and more suffocating by the minute, with increases the heat of the arguments and the sharpness of the remarks. I read somewhere that the first shots in the movie are taken at a high angle and they slowly decrease to a point where, by the end of the movie, they're below the character's faces (I watched the film again and this fact is true). Also, different lenses were used to give the impression that the walls were shrinking. I tell you, it's cinematic perfection.
The acting is point-perfect. Henry Fonda delivers a searingly intelligent performance as one of the jury members who poses most of the troubling questions, and amongst the other twelve, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley, E.G. Marshall and Jack Warden are equally powerful and entrancing. Overall, the film lasts a little over an hour and a half. But it's an hour and a half of pure delight, of witnessing amazing cinema unlike any we've seen in recent times. I mean, the film was made in 1957, and it's still as fresh and as original as if it had been released yesterday, even with an unnatural quantity of courtroom dramas that Hollywood spews out.
I've seen my good share of courtroom dramas, and even in my young age I happily come to discover films like these that even having been done way before my time still manage to be more interesting than many.
Rating: 4 stars out of 4!!