Brilliant Group dynamics

Rating: 10/10 (25 February 2017)

I will not go in normal review of the movie. It had been brilliant. There were loopholes, but not in the plot, but in the prosecution. There are more than reasonable doubt of the boy being not guilty and he most certainly was, along with the points made by the defense (jurors) there were several other missed points, which the stories said, but weren't used for defense. The movie brilliantly brings out, when the cops wants to make a scapegoat of someone who doesn't have means to defend, how easily they can. The defense lawyer, as mentioned during discussions, was an unwilling completely disinterested and somehow wanted to go over the ordeal. Probably a case of 'Court Appointed' - a la "You volunteer" of An Officer And A gentleman. The glaring inconsistencies, which the juror noticed, and some they didn't were not noticed by him. However that isn't the brilliance of the movie, but it is its real life depiction of a upper echelon policy meeting, especially Board Meetings of a company. I am in a position vouch for that. Probably, if not already, this movie should be a part of mandatory curriculum of any business school. There the CEO has brought an agenda, ably supported by his/her team (the prosecutors). It is in Board, and usually the way it happens, all are very convinced of the power point presentation and the golden future the schemes will lead to. Unless one has a doubt and express it, the scheme will move on, till probably it is too late (boy past and beyond chair).
It is only when one says "I am not too sure" the discussions take place and various lacunae and wrong assumptions come to surface. In business, those are taken (sometimes) positively to plug the loopholes and polish the proposal (here of course there were no midway) but still the dynamics of a business meeting was replicated. The members with their own personal opinions (back grounds, prejudices), changing courts, on one side and again on other side, as the respective prejudices were addressed by the two opposing camps. Though all the background of each were not clearly brought out, but still one could guess, from their prejudices. Change the topic, and as I said it is a board meet.
On the lighter side. this movie is strangely devoid of feminine presence. In the whole movie, leave aside jurors, there are not a single member of the fair gender credited or un-credited. In fact only two women ever get referred to, first being one of the star witnesses and the other one of the juror's wife.