From 1 against 11 to 11 against 1 in one the most brilliant films in history!

Rating: 10/10 (22 July 2018)

I do not often start my reviews with blunt and opinionated statements, but in this case, it's justified. "12 Angry Men" is righteously considered as one of the top 5 most genius movies ever made! I realize it changes quite frequently, but at the time I'm writing this user-comment, Sidney Lumet's amazing debut film is #5 in the IMDb Top 250! That's a fantastic accomplishment, especially if you consider this film is more than sixty years old, doesn't feature any computer-engineered special effects and hasn't got any geeky cult followings that dress up like the lead characters. Heck, if you take out the everlasting and manipulated feud between "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Godfather", this "12 Angry Men" may even be the REAL #1!
But "12 Angry Men" deserves all the superlatives you could possible use to describe it. Everything about this film is perfect, and if there's one film that literally everybody should be obliged to watch at least once in his/her lifetime, I think it ought to be this one. The original story by Reginal Rose is wondrously absorbing, intelligent, intense and still incredibly relevant even after 60 years. Rose's own adaptation into a movie screenplay is also amazing, with not a single word or piece of dialogue too much or too few. The ensemble cast exists of twelve hyper-professional actors that each give away one of the most impeccable performances of their careers; most notable Henry Fonda as the humane hero, Lee J. Cobb as the dogmatic narcissist and E.G. Marshall as the rigorous pundit. But the biggest geniuses remain director Sidney Lumet and his cameraman Boris Kaufman. If you think that a film that for 99% takes place in one and the same room will inevitably become boring and monotonous, just wait and look what brilliant opportunities there exist in terms of camera angles, lighting, zoom functions and sweat stains!