by Lars Lindahl, high school student email: sidspaced@aol.com
Twelve Angry Men (1957) Directed by Sydney Lumey Written by Reginal Rose Starring Martin Balsam, Ed Begley, Ed Binns, Lee J. Cobb, John Fielder, Henry Fonda, Jack Klugman, E.G. Marshall, Joseph Sweeney, George Voscovec, Jack Warden, Robert Webber
Grade: A+
A flawless masterpiece. "Twelve Angry Men" tells the story of one juror (Fonda) and his attempt to convince 11 others, that a young man should not be executed for a crime he might not have committed. The 11 jurors are positive that the boy is guilty of killing his father from the evidence given during the trial, but Fonda, in a truly believable and inspirational performance, explains to the men that there are two sides to every story. This ambiguity creates a creepy and thought provoking plot. If the jurors decide he's not guilty, they could have let a cold blooded killer out on the streets of New York again. If they decide he is guilty, the jurors could ruin an innocent boy's life. Fonda never says that the boy is not guilty, he just states that there is a possibility he is not guilty and he reminds the men that there decision can determine a man's entire future. No matter what the outcome of the verdict is, the truth is never given to the audience or to the desperate, tired jurors.
Filmed in one room on a hot day in New York City, "12 Angry Men" begins with very little information but as the film progresses the superb script addresses every detail of the trial, each jurors background, and the tensions and differences between them. The focus is not on a few characters but rather on all the characters in the movie. All twelve jurors are examined from every angle including whether they wear glasses or not or their employment status. The convicted boy is shown in a silent, poignant shot in which he begs the jurors not to stereo type him. This innocent face must have provoked Fonda to attempt to dig deeper into the murder. Even the security guard who guards the room which holds the jurors is given a purpose. When he gives the twelve angry men the murder weapon which they requested to inspect, he briefly looks back at the room and, with his facial expressions, asks what is taking so long and why haven't you figured out the obvious conclusion that he is guilty. The guard represents the world outside the court room. He is similar to the 11 other jurors besides Fonda in that he immediately made his decision based on the background of the young boy.
"Twelve Angry Men" challenges the way court systems function by raising an issue of prejudice in which some of the men believe the boy is guilty only because someone like him had caused grief in their lives or because the neighborhood he was brought up in must have influenced him into becoming a cold blooded killer. What is frightening about 12 Angry Men is that the men, nameless and only referred to as juror # _, could easily represent any person in our society including ourselves, even if they are all white males.
copyright 1999 Lars Lindahl
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