12 ANGRY MEN (1957)

Directed By: Sidney Lumet

Starring: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, E. G. Marshall

     Martin Balsam, Jack Warden, John Fiedler

     Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Joseph Sweeney

     Ed Begley, George Voskovec, Robert Webber

12 angry men released in 1957 is directed by Sydney Lumet. The story is surrounded by a court jury of 12 men who are to consider a case of 1^st degree murder and the defendant’s (an 18 year old boy) fate of if they found him GUILTY or NOT GUILTY.

The jury consists of 12 different people from the society with distinctive mindsets. Movie starts with a judge instructing jury after the hearing of case about the verdict to be decided by them and as it was 1^st degree murder case the decision of jury must be unanimous and all the members must be of the same conclusion at the end.  After that the whole movie is shot in one room except 2 scenes (one in washroom and one in the climax which is of outside court).

Now as the jury started with their 1^st vote count JURY#8 votes NOT GUILTY and so they have to discuss the whole case and things went through the court-room. The whole movie shows 12 men with different personality from different fields, who think differently, who have nothing in common and even don’t know each other are to decide the fate of the defendant. Two of the jury are rude old men who have their personal bias opinions for slum people and children of young age (the defendant was from slum). Two-three were not much interested in the case they just wanted to finish the things and get out the room to enjoy some baseball match. Others would believe that what ever witness told was true. But as the discussion of case goes on they required to re-think on all the possibilities and why the witnesses would be wrong in testifying.

Sydney Lumet has narrated the script so well that it left the viewer spellbound during 96min of drama. Whole story focuses mainly on behavioral aspects of humans. It has brilliant performances from all the actors and Henry Fonda( who played JURY#8) deserves special mention.

From my point of view the movie was engaging as well as a learning experience (especially for those who are studying Human Behavior or who are interested Human Behavior’s different aspects).

A must watch for classic movie lovers.