Movie 21 - "12 Angry Men"

Director Sidney Lumet turned a stage play into an Oscar nominated movie in 1957.  The kicker...the whole thing takes place in a jury room.  The characters are known only as juror #1, #2, etc.  Henry Fonda plays juror #8, the main juror.  In this film, an 18 year old Latino boy is accused of stabbing his father.  When the jurors first enter the room, it seems like an open and shut case of guilty.  But juror #8 does not think the decision should be so hasty.  He angers the other jurors at first, who think he is just causing trouble, and they want to go home.  He makes an argument against one piece of evidence.  It stirs some uncomfortable feelings in one or two jurors, but the rest stand strong.  Then another juror finds a flaw, and another juror turns.  Over the course of this film, what really comes to light, is not the evidence, but the jurors own personalities and ideals.  Instead of being objective and looking for reasonable doubt, they are acting out of emotions.  There are racial prejudices, family issues, age differences, socio-economic differences, various temperaments.  All these factors play a part in the way the jurors vote, and what changes their minds.  Slowly all the jurors begin to change their minds, until there is only one man left voting guilty.  The tables have turned completely.  It goes from guilty to not guilty in a matter of hours.  But these hours are tense, emotional, angry.  Imagine being locked in a tiny, hot room with strangers, arguing over another person's life.  This boy will go to the electric chair unless all twelve agree not guilty. 

This is a wonderful movie.  It is gripping.  There are extremely uncomfortable scenes, where you feel the characters' feelings.  Like the scene where juror number 10 makes his racist speech and the whole room turns from him, disgusted, and embarrassed for him.  He never utters another word in the film after.  Or when juror number 9, the older man, describes why the old witness may have lied or been mistaken.  You feel that the older juror understands because he is just like the witness.  You feel saddened that someone who has lived so long could feel so unimportant or non-existent.  This movie did not win the Oscars it was nominated for, losing to "Bridge on the River Kwai".  I love "The Bridge...", don't get me wrong.  But the fact that "Twelve Angry Men" was so good, filmed in just 21 days, in a little room, with little budget, makes it amazing.  Watch it!