12 Angry Men (1957)
by Sidney Lumet
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VHS Tape Cover Information
Actor: E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, Martin BalsamDirector: Sidney Lumet
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
Running Time: 92 minutes
Release Date: 1995-09-26
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
VHS Movie Reviews of 12 Angry Men (1957)
Movie Review: Enter the jury room and hold on to your values
Summary: 5 Stars
Henry Fonda stars with Lee J. Cobb, E. G. Marshall and a nine other fine character actors in this classic courtroom drama from 1957. Despite the black-and-white filming and dated costume and props, this story still packs a terrific punch, mainly due to terrific writing and careful attention to dramatic unities of time, place and action. The story itself has an elegant simplicity to it: a young man is on trial for the murder of his father, and as the film opens we see the jury (12 white men of various distinctive types) being ushered into the jury room to decide his fate. Eleven of these men are outraged by the brutality of the crime and anxious to return a "guilty" verdict. Only one (Henry Fonda) questions the defendant's guilt. Using various debating techniques, Fonda reveals his doubts about the various pieces of evidence offered by the prosecution, and gradually begins to put "reasonable doubt" into the minds of his fellow jurors.
The conflict in this film (which is pretty much a recording of a stage drama) is between the jurors, not between the alleged murderer and his father, so there's no action in this film beyond 12 angry men heatedly arguing the case. Some viewers may be turned off by the story's preachiness - admittedly the film is pretty heavy-handed in its liberal bias - but it's still a powerful and soul-stirring evocation of one of Americans' crucial human rights: the trial by jury. Our judicial system may not be perfect, but this film certainly is. A must for high school civics class, and a stunning rebuttal to those who doubt that one man can make a difference in this world.
Summary of 12 Angry Men (1957)
Sidney Lumet's directorial debut remains a tense, atmospheric (though slightly manipulative and stagy) courtroom thriller, in which the viewer never sees a trial and the only action is verbal. As he does in his later corruption commentaries such as Serpico or Q & A, Lumet focuses on the lonely one-man battles of a protagonist whose ethics alienate him from the rest of jaded society. As the film opens, the seemingly open-and-shut trial of a young Puerto Rican accused of murdering his father with a knife has just concluded and the 12-man jury retires to their microscopic, sweltering quarters to decide the verdict. When the votes are counted, 11 men rule guilty, while one--played by Henry Fonda, again typecast as another liberal, truth-seeking hero--doubts the obvious. Stressing the idea of "reasonable doubt," Fonda slowly chips away at the jury, who represent a microcosm of white, male society--exposing the prejudices and preconceptions that directly influence the other jurors' snap judgments. The tight script by Reginald Rose (based on his own teleplay) presents each juror vividly using detailed soliloquies, all which are expertly performed by the film's flawless cast. Still, it's Lumet's claustrophobic direction--all sweaty close-ups and cramped compositions within a one-room setting--that really transforms this contrived story into an explosive and compelling nail-biter. --Dave McCoyDrama VHS Video
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