12 Angry Men
Life in their hands, death on their minds.
Directed by Sidney Lumet, with a screenplay penned by TV writer Reginald Rose, this courtroom drama is not only one of the most famous films of it’s genre, it is also the absolute best. The entire plot of this film is centred and filmed within a single room, where twelve jurors must decide whether a young man is responsible for his fathers brutal murder and whether he should be given the death penalty, which in 1950’s America was nothing less horrifying than the electric chair.
At the outset, after the jury retires to consider their verdict, the room is pretty much unanimous that the boy did indeed kill his father, everyone that is apart juror number eight Mr Davis, (Henry Fonda) who is convinced that the suspect is innocent. Over the next slow-burning, palm-sweating hour and a half, we get nothing less than an absolute masterclass of acting, not just from the likes of Fonda, but other really famous character actors of the time such as Jack Klugman and Lee J Cobb. As well as some truly masterful writing that still make this film, more than sixty years after being released in American theatres, an absolute marvel to watch. In fact Rose’s script is so powerful that it makes you feel extremely sympathetic towards the suspect in question, even though you only see him for a few moments at the very start of the movie.
In this 1957 Oscar Nominee, the Director focused on very long takes and extreme close ups of the juror’s faces to increase the high tension. 12 Angry Men is quite simply the greatest courtroom drama of all time and will probably never be bettered. This masterpiece makes a mockery of the multi-million dollar special effects films of today, as it achieves more than they could ever hope for, all shot in a single room.
10/10 – Calum Roberts
