12 Angry Men - Film Review

Dave Wing

"12 Angry Men" Report

12 Angry Men is a dramatic film from 1957 which was directed by Sidney Lumet and written by Reginald Rose. It is a 96 minute look into the United States criminal court system at its best. Using the setting of a jury room Lumet was able to convey a very powerful insight to what it can be like to sit on a jury and have to make life or death decision.

The movie starts on the last day of a murder trial for a boy who allegedly killed his father after a heated argument. Due to the many undeniable facts which included a women seeing him from her window and the killer using the boys knife, it seems as though the jury will have a fast decision in condemning the boy to the electric chair. Upon their first vote they find that everyone choices guilty except for one juror, number eight. After this initial vote juror number eight spends the rest of the movie convincing the other jury members that the boy is not guilty due to reasonable doubt. He does a great job planting the seed of reasonable doubt in all the jurors head allowing them to expand upon it and help him in the end. A few of the points that were made included the amount of time it took the father to walk to the door and back, the knife stabbing pattern and the credibility of the women whom saw the boy without her glasses on. There are a few stubborn members who refuse to listen to Henry Fonda but in the end the jury comes to a unanimous decision of not guilty.

By the end of this classic movie 12 Angry Men I felt as though I got a very in depth and real look at how the jury system works in the United States and what it may be like to sit on a jury in a big case. None of this would have been possible without a perfect casting, great writing and a very real setting.