12 Angry Men (1957)

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12 Angry Men (1957)

7/10

Starring

Henry Fonda

Lee J. Cobb

E. G. Marshall

Martin Balsam

Jack Warden

John Fiedler

Directed by Sidney Lumet

Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United Artists

This courtroom drama is rated second in AFI's 10 Top 10 Courtroom Drama, behind the classic To Kill A Mockingbird. Although the movie is not as great as To Kill AMockingbird, it does boast of excellent acting skills and a nice view of how the human mind works.

Most of the entire movie took place in the jury room. The total time spent outside of the jury room was three minutes out of the full 96 minutes of the movie and the time in the Jury room exposes you to how judgemental the world is.

This drama film was adapted from a teleplay of the same name by Reginald Rose, whose screenplay for 12 Angry Men was initially produced for the CBS program Studio One in 1954.

The film 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 that was brought up by one of the jurors. Juror 8 (Henry Fonda) was the juror that brought up the basis of reasonable doubt. He was the movie’s protagonist.

Juror 8 had the herculean task of proving to the others that his reasonable doubt was valid since In the United States (both then and now), a verdict in most criminal trials by jury must be unanimous.

As the movie went on, you will see how some of the jurors were seeing things from the view of juror 8 and how some remained adamant.

The movie’s main antagonist was juror 3 a stubborn disrespectful man, who no matter what some of the others were able to prove stood his ground, by doing so he kept some of the jurors at his side of the defendant being guilty.

'12 Angry Men' was remade for television in 1997. Directed by William Friedkin, the remake starred Jack Lemmon as one of the jurors. Most of the action and dialogue of the film are identical to the original. Although there was no smoking in the jury room and concentration shifted to income and pop culture.

12 angry men’s teleplay has been adapted to many TV series over the years some of these include Hancock's Half Hour, Picket Fences, Perfect Strangers, Family Matters, The Dead Zone, Early Edition, The Odd Couple, King of the Hill, Matlock, 7th Heaven, Veronica Mars, Monk, Hey Arnold!, Peep Show (TV series), My Wife and Kids, Robot Chicken, and The Simpsons.

The movie is exceptionally captivating and you will not regret the time you spent watching this movie.