12 Angry Men (1957)

I looked up the top movies of all time on IMDB a little while ago just to see if there was anything I was missing out on. There weren't many near the top, but one such title was 12 Angry Men. I had never heard of this movie before, and I asked my friends if they had seen it. I was shocked when they all said they had. I think they're used to learning when I haven't seen a movie. They've come to expect it with everything. Never the less, I was even more curious to watch this one, especially when they all said it was good. Turns out it's a courtroom drama... of sorts. My thoughts after the jump.


12 Angry Men starts off right at the end of a murder trial. All the evidence has been presented and the 12 man jury is told to go off and make their decision. The first thing they do is take a vote to see who believes the boy being accused is guilty or not guilty. Everyone is talking about how evident it was that the boy did it. They all vote guilty except one man. They have no choice but to talk it out. As viewers, we never got to see any of the case in the court. Instead everything is presented to us as the jury members start to discuss the case in their locked room. As they all make their points for why they believe he's guilty, the lone "not guilty" starts asking his own questions and poking holes in evidence. Slowly he starts to sway some of the other members, but if the vote isn't 100% one way or the other, it'll be a hung jury. With a young man's life in their hands, can he convince all of them that there is reasonable doubt?

12 men hold the life in their hands

Other than the brief time we spend in the courtroom and an outdoor shot, the entire movie takes place inside one room with the jury. This might sound boring, but right away I was hooked! Normally this is the one part of a court case that TV shows and other movies skip entirely. We never know why a jury votes one way or the other, they just walk out, fade out, fade in, they walk back in and we hear a verdict. In 12 Angry Men we actually hear all the arguments, the evidence, the theories and the thoughts of all the men in the jury.

I thought it was extremely well done how they laid out the crime. Through examining possible flaws in testimony, we learn more and more about where the body was found, what happened and who said what. You really get a good image of the events of that night, even though we never actually see it. By the end I had a whole neighborhood imagined in my head.

Not everyone agrees and very heated arguments break out a number of times

Of course a lot of this movie hinges then on the actors and their characters. The story of course is certainly key, but so much of this film is just watching a group of men talk and debate. You need good characters to keep from getting bored. They also have to be very unique and diverse to help tell them all apart, because there is quite a large cast. Thankfully they are good characters and they give just enough detail about what the different men do for a living, or where they grew up to help you quickly get some sense of identity to keep them all separate in your mind. At least, that's what I found. There are so many good performances, and a number of recognizable actors, but I thought the 5 that stood out the most were Henry Fonda (seen below with the knife), Lee J. Cobb (above pointing), Joseph Sweeney, Jack Warden, and E.G. Marshall, who was possibly my favorite of the group, but it's hard to say.

Piece by piece, they examine the evidence and find potential holes

There was another thing I noticed, and this is pretty minor, but it helped. Whenever they would take another vote (and they take quite a few), they would either vote differently or it was filmed differently. Sometimes they just hold up their hands, sometimes they write on paper, sometimes they go around the table and say "guilty" or "not guilty". At any rate, this could have gotten very tedious and I liked how it was handled.

I really liked the mystery of the crime and how it was slowly solved piece by piece. Well, "solved" isn't really the right word, but how they came to their decision at least. I hear there's a remake of this movie, and I wonder how that is compared to this one, especially since this one holds up so well even to today. If you're curious about 12 Angry Men and you like courtroom type movies and murder mysteries, then definitely check this one out, I don't think you'll be disappointed.