The Best Film I Have Ever Seen..probably

Rating: 10/10 (1 September 2017)

This film features the trial of a young man accused of murdering his father. All of the action takes place in one room - the jury room.
So much going on in this film. It is about evidence, closed-mindedness vs open-mindedness, gender (no women on the jury as women were not invented til 1984), lots of stuff. But mostly it is about class.
Henry Fonda is brilliant here. He is an architect, so it is reasonable to suppose that he is middle class, intelligent and open-minded. He votes not guilty, not because he believes the accused to be innocent, but because he's just not sure. He's on his own.
Gradually over the course of the film, he attempts to convert all of the other jurors...
There are jurors that are ignorant, jurors that are stupid. Jurors that are both. Jurors that just want to go home, not caring really about the guilt or innocence of the accused. All are challenged with Fonda's expert Socratic prodding..
Superb acting by everyone.
Interestingly, this is all achieved with on a budget of $3.43. I mean it all happens in one room, there are no explosions, and no car chases. Just a superb script, superb acting and big themes that make you think - out loud!
Not one single criticism.