12 Angry Men (1957)
Director:
Sidney LumetStars:
Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb and Martin BalsamThey have twelve scraps of paper... twelve chances to kill !
Sidney Lumet's directorial debut remains a tense, atmospheric (though
slightly manipulative and stagy) courtroom thriller, in which the
viewer never sees a trial and the only action is verbal. As he does in
his later corruption commentaries such as Serpico or Q & A, Lumet
focuses on the lonely one-man battles of a protagonist whose ethics
alienate him from the rest of jaded society. As the film opens, the
seemingly open-and-shut trial of a young Puerto Rican accused of
murdering his father with a knife has just concluded and the 12-man
jury retires to their microscopic, sweltering quarters to decide the
verdict. When the votes are counted, 11 men rule guilty, while
one--played by Henry Fonda, again typecast as another liberal,
truth-seeking hero--doubts the obvious. Stressing the idea of
"reasonable doubt," Fonda slowly chips away at the jury, who represent
a microcosm of white, male society ,exposing the prejudices and
preconceptions that directly influence the other jurors' snap
judgments. The tight script by Reginald Rose (based on his own tele
play) presents each juror vividly using detailed soliloquies, all which
are expertly performed by the film's flawless cast. Still, it's Lumet's
claustrophobic direction ,all sweaty close-ups and cramped compositions
within a one-room setting--that really transforms this contrived story
into an explosive and compelling nail-biter.
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