12 ANGRY MEN

12 Angry Men, released in 1957, made my list of “must-see movies for 2023” because it was the first film directed by the legendary Sidney Lumet. Fourteen of Lumet’s films were nominated for Academy Awards, and Lumet himself was nominated five times for an individual award for Directing and Screen Play Adaptation.

The “12” are all white men of varying backgrounds, cloistered in a jury room deciding the fate of an 18-year-old boy on trial for murder. The boy is referred to by some of the jurors as “one of them”, with the “them” never being quite spelled out. We are shown the teen just once and the actor who plays him is of Italian descent, but the “them” seems to be more about class, particularly lower class. It ultimately doesn’t matter who the “them” is because the story is an examination of character within the 12 jurors. This examination runs a broad gamut, including empathy, apathy, prejudice, grit, superciliousness, timidity, courage, and cowardice. We know nothing of the trial itself and only learn specifics as the twelve men discuss what they each remember from their time sitting in the jury box. After an initial vote of 11 – 1, we then get to see who each of the jurors really is as they contemplate the facts and begin to actually discuss the case and listen to each other.

Except for a few minutes at the beginning and end of the picture, the entire story takes place in a stuffy jury room, devoid of air conditioning, on a hot summer day. Because of this it often seems like watching a play that has been deftly filmed (the story itself was originally written as a television play). The staging of the characters is often stupendously inciteful. Each actor fully embodies his role, and the casting is perfect. I especially enjoyed seeing character actor John Fiedler as timid Juror #1. Though shy, he is more believable than the overly nebbish characters he has since come to be known for. The film is almost devoid of a musical score. There is some somber music at the beginning of the movie as we establish the courtroom, and there is some more uplifting music at the end of the film as the jury exits the building. However, during the entire time the twelve men are in the deliberation room, music is injected only once, for about 30 seconds, to heighten anticipation and transition the change in direction the twelve men are about to undertake.

12 Angry Men is an outstanding movie examining the deliberations of “reasonable doubt” superimposed over twelve characters demonstrating the worst and the best that humankind has to offer each other.