12 Angry Men
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DVD Review
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Review
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If this movie would to be aired on the television most people would turn it over as soon as they saw it was black & white, some may get as far as seeing the actors names before switching over to another channel, maybe even commenting on the “old rubbish” they put on TV these days, and a few would continue watching it either because they knew the film and wanted to see it again or they would be prepared to give it a chance.
If you fell into the last band then you would be in for a movie treat as 12 Angry Men is one of the best, most powerful movies I have seen in years and for someone who would normally class action, sci-fi and horror films amongst his favourites that is quite a statement.
A quick Synopsis of the film is this. A young boy from a under privileged background is accused of murdering his father with a knife, If found guilty he will be sent to the electric chair to face a horrible death. His fate is down to the members of the Jury.
The Jurors are sent to deliberate the case, an initial vote is taken and it is apparent that most people think that the boy is guilty when there is an 11 to 1 vote for a guilty verdict. The one man who has doubts is Juror #8, Mr Davis (Henry Fonda). Although not 100% convinced of the boys innocence he believes it fair that they debate the issue and the evidence. And so begins 12 Angry Men.
I would like to point out that all bar three minutes of this movie takes place inside one room, the jury room. Rather than seeing the prosecution and the defence putting their cases for and against and the strutting of egos that normally accompanies these scenarios, we hear the evidence second hand through the mouths of the jurors as they are forced into discussing the case.
But overall the film is never really about the case itself. Rather than focusing on the guilt or innocence of the accused the movie concentrates more on the personal character traits and prejudices of the men tasked with analysing the evidence to come to a decision and how those traits effect their decision making. Who are these men?
Juror #1 – (Martin Balsam) He is made foreman of the jury, a task he doesn’t really want, he never puts his own opinion across and is always trying to organise things and please all the people all the time.
Juror #2 – (John Fiedler) An accountant by trade, he is a quiet timid man who feels uncomfortable making decisions of his own, and bases his initial decisions on other peoples, the only time you see him excited is when he talks about football. But as time goes on his confidence grows.
Juror #3 – (Lee J. Cobb) a complicated character although coming across as a bit of a tough guy. He starts of pleasant enough, putting his arguments forward as facts, but he gets more and more animated and aggressive as the deliberations go on, he has a failed relationship with his son and is determined that someone will pay.
Juror #4 – (E.G. Marshall) A stockbroker, slightly aloof and arrogant he uses logic to make his decisions.
Juror #5 – (Jack Klugman) also brought up in a poor home but has tried to better himself, he can relate to the accused and quickly rounds on people that put down his “type” although he initially finds him guilty.
Juror #6 – (Ed Binns) A regular guy just doing his duty, has respect for the older members of the Jury, but ultimately thinks that everyone else should really make the crunch decision.
Juror #8 – (Henry Fonda) He is the one that starts the debate and defies all the guilty votes around him, he cares enough that he wants to make the right decision, he doesn’t say if the boy is guilty or innocent, but he believes the evidence should be discussed, and he has reasonable doubt.
Juror #9 – (Joseph Sweeney) He observes human behaviour throughout the trial and brings his observations up throughout the debate, a wise, likeable old man.
Juror #10 – (Ed Begley) a racist through and through, he believes himself better than the boy on trial and doesn’t mind saying so and would have him found guilty purely because that is “what they’re all like”.
Juror #11 – (George Voskovec) a foreign watchmaker with a better grasp of English than most of his Juror colleagues. He is in awe of the justice system and the fact that people are tried in this way instead of being just found guilty. Mostly calm he is a likeable character.
Juror #12 – (Robert Webber) – a businessman or salesman, he varies from telling jokes and seeing what other people decide and then going with that majority decision.
Except for a few other people that you see in the film, the list above is pretty much it. I don’t normally mention every character in a movie but 12 Angry Men is slightly different in that they all DESERVE to be mentioned. Each and every one of them plays there character with such believability it creates a tension and level of excitement unseen even in some modern movies.
So how can you make 12 guys sitting in one room exciting? Well I suppose exciting is the wrong word but there is an underlying tension in the movie that makes you want to see it through to the end. So I suppose the question should be, how can I director make you want to sit and watch a film that takes place (almost) entirely in one room. Through a mixture of script and cinematography that’s how!
12 Angry Men is based on a screenplay by Reginald Rose (who received an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay). And the choice of debut director at the time Sidney Lumet (Dog Day Afternoon) to use lenses of longer focal length as the film went on to give a more claustrophobic feel also adds to the look and feel as tensions get to boiling point.
This film is one of my favourite movies, and that is testament to a powerful script a good director on his debut piece and good framing by Boris Kaufman the director of photography. The film wins by providing something very rare in a movie these days, it gives us a good plot and story backed up by twelve memorable characters.
Picture
Extremely good picture for a film of its age, a pure black and white movie with no other tones seeping through, pretty impressive given the age of the film.
Sound
There are five spoken language tracks on the disc, all are mono tracks and I listed to the English one. The movie is entirely dialogue based and I found that everything was clear as a bell, surround sound not needed and the mono track didn’t spoil anything.
Extras
All you get is a theatrical trailer. Really disappointing and it would have been nice to add a commentary as Sidney Lumet is still alive and this was his debut movie.
Overall
A brilliant, powerful film with a worthy message, a must have for your collection if you like good classic film, currently sits at #19 in the IMDB top 250 movies.
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