A Review of “12 Angry Men”
“Not guilty”. Never before in film had one line delivery impacted a movie more than this line as said by Henry Fonda in the opening minutes of Sidney Lumet’s masterpiece- 12 Angry Men. This film adapted from the teleplay of the same name has a premise as basic as they come but it achieves greatness through its mastery of characterization, acting, and subtle yet impactive cinematography and directing. The film begins with an ordinary, and to some, familiar, scene. 12 jurors have just sat through a seemingly open-and-shut case and are summarily dismissed by a clearly bored judge. To most movies, this would be the end, or at least the beginning of the resolution, but in 12 Angry Men, this is the beginning. The jurors make their way to the jury room and begin to discuss off-handedly the details of their case. A young boy from the slums has killed his father and, if convicted, sentenced to execution. To most of the jurors, guilt is all but confirmed, except for one.
This is how 12 Angry Men begins, though I personally feel this name is a bit of a misnomer. All 12 of this largely unnamed group are fleshed-out characters who have their own reasons for why they believe what they do in this case. Sure, some of them are motivated by rage, and some hold thinly veiled prejudices but the title implies that these are caricatures when in reality they are some of the most complicated and interesting characters ever put to screen. Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, E. G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Jack Warden, Henry Fonda, Joseph Sweeney, EG Begley, Geroge Voskovec, and Robert Webber all give roundhouse performances containing the entire spectrum of human emotions. The room itself is almost as much of a character as the jurors themselves as the heat, camera, and weather close in on the men, making tensions rise and bringing true motivations to the surface. It’s a difficult task to have 12 main characters with no names pop on screen with even superficial attributes but the film does what few others have and that’s make these characters live and breathe inside the tightening sarcophagus of the jury room. 12 Angry Men is most definitely not the flashiest movie ever made but it fires on all cylinders to give audiences one of the tensest and by consequence, most cathartic films ever made.
