← Back to Reviews
in
12 Angry Men (1957)
My undying respect for the talent of the late Sidney Lumet as one of the best directors in the business has once again been documented with my first viewing of the 1957 classic 12 Angry Men,a compelling and intense look at the justice system that looks at the pursuit of justice from a new (for 1957) cinematic angle that works thanks primarily to Lumet's ability to tell a story with his camera.
The film opens with 12 jurors being given instructions from the judge before they retire for deliberations to determine whether an 18 year old boy murdered his father. The men retire to the air-deprived jury room and the jury foreman (Martin Balsam) decides to take a vote to see if they can wrap this up quickly but is dumbfounded when all of the jurors vote guilty except one (Henry Fonda).
Screenwriter Reginald Rose has written what appears to be a simplistic story on the surface and the fact that Henry Fonda is playing the lone juror, we pretty much know what's going to happen, even knowing that the jurors have been instructed that their verdict must be unanimous and if the boy is found guilty, he is going to the electric chair. We think we know exactly what's going to happen in that jury room and very little of this story played out the way I expected it to and, boy, what a pleasure that was.
The first clue we have as to what is going on actually comes from Lumet, not Rose or the other actors. As the jurors retire for deliberations, Lumet does a brilliant close up of the defendant...still sitting in the courtroom, his wide-eyes welling up with water. This shot alone tells us that the boy is innocent, but the journey to the jury figuring that out is so perplexing and funny and aggravating and we begin to believe that there is no way a unanimous verdict can be achieved. After the first vote, Fonda's character, Juror No. 8, is asked why he thinks the boy isn't guilty and he replies that he's not sure that he's guilty, but he's not sure he's not guilty, we know this story is not going to go an easy or predictable route.
There are universal themes addressed in this story that were quite bold for the time. There is one juror who cannot get past the fact that the defendant is not white and continually uses phrases like "those people" and bases his vote on his bigotry. The film reminds us of the importance of jury duty, something millions of people spend a lot of trouble trying to get out of. Juror No. 7 (Jack Warden) is only voting guilty because he has tickets for a ball game in a few hours. I loved that the primary reason No. 8 wanted to make sure he was right was because this boy's life hung in the balance.
I also loved the way Lumet used his camera to quietly foreshadow Fonda's mission in getting these men to consider reasonable doubt. It was fun trying to guess who would be the next juror to fall under No. 8's spell and it was fun watching the camera leading us to who that was going to be.
Lumet's direction is atmospheric as always...few directors can provide an atmosphere of sweaty claustrophobia the way Lumet can and, as always, has gotten powerhouse performances from his cast, with standout work from Fonda, Balsam, Warden, Ed Begley, Jack Klugman, and especially the amazing Lee J. Cobb. I still say Network is Lumet's masterpiece, but this is definitely second. The film was remade for television in 1997 but it was but a pale imitation of this. A master class in the art of film direction.
My undying respect for the talent of the late Sidney Lumet as one of the best directors in the business has once again been documented with my first viewing of the 1957 classic 12 Angry Men,a compelling and intense look at the justice system that looks at the pursuit of justice from a new (for 1957) cinematic angle that works thanks primarily to Lumet's ability to tell a story with his camera.
The film opens with 12 jurors being given instructions from the judge before they retire for deliberations to determine whether an 18 year old boy murdered his father. The men retire to the air-deprived jury room and the jury foreman (Martin Balsam) decides to take a vote to see if they can wrap this up quickly but is dumbfounded when all of the jurors vote guilty except one (Henry Fonda).
Screenwriter Reginald Rose has written what appears to be a simplistic story on the surface and the fact that Henry Fonda is playing the lone juror, we pretty much know what's going to happen, even knowing that the jurors have been instructed that their verdict must be unanimous and if the boy is found guilty, he is going to the electric chair. We think we know exactly what's going to happen in that jury room and very little of this story played out the way I expected it to and, boy, what a pleasure that was.
The first clue we have as to what is going on actually comes from Lumet, not Rose or the other actors. As the jurors retire for deliberations, Lumet does a brilliant close up of the defendant...still sitting in the courtroom, his wide-eyes welling up with water. This shot alone tells us that the boy is innocent, but the journey to the jury figuring that out is so perplexing and funny and aggravating and we begin to believe that there is no way a unanimous verdict can be achieved. After the first vote, Fonda's character, Juror No. 8, is asked why he thinks the boy isn't guilty and he replies that he's not sure that he's guilty, but he's not sure he's not guilty, we know this story is not going to go an easy or predictable route.
There are universal themes addressed in this story that were quite bold for the time. There is one juror who cannot get past the fact that the defendant is not white and continually uses phrases like "those people" and bases his vote on his bigotry. The film reminds us of the importance of jury duty, something millions of people spend a lot of trouble trying to get out of. Juror No. 7 (Jack Warden) is only voting guilty because he has tickets for a ball game in a few hours. I loved that the primary reason No. 8 wanted to make sure he was right was because this boy's life hung in the balance.
I also loved the way Lumet used his camera to quietly foreshadow Fonda's mission in getting these men to consider reasonable doubt. It was fun trying to guess who would be the next juror to fall under No. 8's spell and it was fun watching the camera leading us to who that was going to be.
Lumet's direction is atmospheric as always...few directors can provide an atmosphere of sweaty claustrophobia the way Lumet can and, as always, has gotten powerhouse performances from his cast, with standout work from Fonda, Balsam, Warden, Ed Begley, Jack Klugman, and especially the amazing Lee J. Cobb. I still say Network is Lumet's masterpiece, but this is definitely second. The film was remade for television in 1997 but it was but a pale imitation of this. A master class in the art of film direction.