12 ANGRY MEN (1957) Director: Sidney Lumet

Cinema: Boris Kaufman
Starring: Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Ed Binns, Jack Warden Henry Fonda, Ed Begly
From the outside to the inside of a courthouse we the viewers become a jury sitting in judgment of 12 jurors who have just concluded a murder trial and now must decide whether or not to send a young man to the electric chair for the murder of his father. Upon entering the jury room, it would appear that a guilty verdict is in the cards, but one man, a quiet reflective gentleman all dressed in white, has his doubts. He’s not willing to send a man to the chair so easily, and wants to discuss the case with his fellow jurors. What begins as a majority struggling to convince one man of the defendants guilt turns into one man slowly planting the seeds of doubt into each of his fellow jurors. The acting is first rate throughout, allowing the individual traits of each juror to develop naturally, but the script appears to have been written by the defense. The two strongest holdouts clearly have a bias for convicting, one racial and the other personal. The only “thinker” in opposition to Fonda’s man in the white suite, who seems a bit too smug, uncharacteristically falters during a mini cross-examination. Clearly the boy did not go to the movies that evening! 12 Angry Men could have profited from a better opposition, and while it is clear that the jury was obliged to render a “not guilty” verdict under the circumstances, it likewise seemed clear that the prosecution’s ability to present its case was impeded by a script that had already decided the outcome.