12 Angry Men is the type of film that intellectual bleeding heart liberals will take to instantly, but is also a film that all Americans should respect. It gets to the core of the American judicial system, lending cinematic proof that justice and mercy can be found within the system. No finer drama about the nuts and bolts goings on inside a jury room has ever been filmed.
I recently served on a jury in a fraud case, and found myself relating much that goes on in the film with what I experienced in real life although it's difficult to imagine an all-male jury being selected in modern times. It serves a purpose here, as each man represents a cross section of humanity without having sexist issues coming to play.
Reginald Rose's tight script invokes far more gripping drama within the confined space of the jury room than you'll collectively see in all the crime dramas produced in 2002, but only for thinking audiences. It's also a reminder about how good television drama once was, as Rose's original version was first a tele-play for Studio One that showed on September 20, 1954.
The case involves murder. The defendant is an undisclosed minority from the slums, a young man accused of killing his father. If race and social class isn't melodramatic enough, consider that the father reportedly didn't get along with his son.
Since the 18 year old is charged with first degree murder, all twelve men must agree unanimously and must be absolutely sure of their decision if reaching a guilty verdict'by law a 'not guilty' verdict means that there remains a reasonable doubt. Initially the twelve individuals enter the jury room without much purpose. Jack Warden is mostly concerned about getting out to see the ballgame with the Indians, and others are anxious to vote and get the process over with.
The initial vote stands 11-1, with the heroic Henry Fonda standing against his jury mates. Although he's not sure that the boy is innocent, he's uncomfortable with the idea that they neglect to discuss the case and decide his fate with a superficial first tally.
As the discussion unfolds, the men reveal much about their own characters, and this plays a factor in how they think and vote in this case. The angriest man is Lee J. Cobb, a simple man who attempts to get his way by shouting and bullying others, but his Achilles heel is his own busted relationship with his son. Ed Begley's anger is projected at all 'those' kind of people in the slums, but his prejudice is so over the top that Sidney Lumet's overhead camera captures a great shot of each of the other men turning away and isolating the jury bigot.
The others are far less angry. Jack Klugman came from the wrong side of the tracks and knows about switchblades, character actor John Fiedler plays the bookish runt from the bank, Joseph Sweeney the elderly man with a keen eye for truth and detail, Martin Balsam as the jury foreman most concerned with order and procedure, and formally dressed E.G. Marshall, who would play Spock had he been cast for Star Trek.
Henry Fonda champions the best of our legal system, going beyond the confines of the court appointed defendant lawyer and asking the questions that should have been asked in court. The film supports the idea that jury members should have a right to ask questions in some fashion, as the script points out how they really can recall minute details when collectively deliberating. Either that, or make sure that every jury has a Fonda type person, who takes his jury responsibilities seriously.
The pacing of the 96-minute film is magnificent. Between Sidney Lumet's direction and Carl Lerner's editing, 12 Angry Men ranks as the tautest courtroom drama you'll ever see, surpassing Lumet's very good 1982 drama, The Verdict. Boris Kaufman's camera creates a feeling of jury room claustrophobia with numerous and varied close-ups that add to the psychological aspects. Even the set design was narrowed as the drama proceeded to add to the closed-in feeling as the tension builds towards the inevitable. For such a small set, the camera work is dynamic.
Unfolding like the stage play it is adapted from, 12 Angry Men relies on too much dialog for most audiences, so it never did tremendous box office. But it's been re-discovered by critics in subsequent years and is now recognized as one of the great film dramas from the 1950's.