A Legal Cinema Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (9 January 2012)

A Puerto Rican youth is on trial for murder, accused of knifing his father to death.Directed by Sidney Lumet, 12 Angry Men tells the story of a jury made up of 12 men as they deliberate the guilt or acquittal of a defendant on the basis of reasonable doubt. In the United States, the verdict in most criminal trials by jury must be unanimous one way or the other. The film is notable for its almost exclusive use of one set: with the exception of the film's opening, which begins outside on the steps of the courthouse and ends with the jury's final instructions before retiring, a brief final scene on the courthouse steps and two short scenes in an adjoining washroom, the entire movie takes place in the jury room.
The twelve jurors retire to the jury room, having been admonished that the defendant is innocent until proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Eleven of the jurors vote for conviction, each for reasons of his own. The sole holdout is Juror #8, played by Henry Fonda. As Fonda persuades the weary jurors to re-examine the evidence, we learn the backstory of each man. Juror #3 (Lee J. Cobb), a bullying self-made man, has estranged himself from his own son. Juror #7 (Jack Warden) has an ingrained mistrust of foreigners; so, to a lesser extent, does Juror #6 (Edward Binns). Jurors #10 (Ed Begley) and #11 (George Voskovec), so certain of the infallibility of the Law, assume that if the boy was arrested, he must be guilty. Juror #4 (E.G. Marshall) is an advocate of dispassionate deductive reasoning. Juror #5 (Jack Klugman), like the defendant a product of "the streets," hopes that his guilty vote will distance himself from his past. Juror #12 (Robert Webber), an advertising man, doesn't understand anything that he can't package and market. And Jurors #1 (Martin Balsam), #2 (John Fiedler) and #9 (Joseph Sweeney), anxious not to make waves, "go with the flow." The excruciatingly hot day drags into an even hotter night; still, Fonda character,Juror #8 chips away at the guilty verdict, insisting that his fellow jurors bear in mind those words "reasonable doubt."
This is a classic film wherein where tension comes from personality conflict, dialogue and body language.Although it may sound ungallant, these 12 Angry Men, are all right without distaff glamour. Their dramas are powerful and provocative enough to keep a viewer spellbound.Sidney Lumet,who is in his directorial debut,effectively modulates the drama without ever taking the camera out of the jury room until the verdict is in and the jury is out.As for the story,it was mechanically written, but within its own middlebrow limitations, it delivers the goods as it presents a powerful impact to the viewer.