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12 Angry Men (1957)

After both the defense and prosecution end their final speeches the jury must decide to execute or free a murderer suspect.

"12 Angry Men" is almost entirely set in the jury’s room during deliberations to decide the verdict of a murder trial. Should they condemn the defendant to death?

When the twelve jurors sit around the table everyone except Juror #8 (Henry Fonda) thinks the respondent is guilty. As the discussion begins and conflict between points of view progresses we become aware of what happened and the details of the crime.

Slowly Juror #8 starts to convince some of his colleagues to change their minds, proving that some of the facts presented during the trial are not entirely precise. Will he convince them all or not?

Director Sidney Lumet used several devices to progressively enhance the film’s tension and avoid the boredom of a movie with its main action set completely in a single room. First he broke the scenes into different sets: one corner of the room, the opposite corner, the drinking fountain. Then, following the principle of French theater scenes in which the changing of the number of characters on the stage was used to build different scenes, Lumet varied the groups of jurors in each shot, creating an illusion of new scenes without never actually leaving the same place.

Another clever device was to progressively switch lenses during filming. As the story moved forward Lumet changed to wider focal lengths, making the room walls become more and more evident, while simultaneously lowering the angle of camera, making the ceiling apparent.

While the tension grows between the characters the room becomes smaller and confined, enhancing the claustrophobic feeling.

With a compelling story on his hands Sidney Lumet added his masterful crafting to create a tense and captivating movie that will keep you hypnotically focused on the jury’s decision over life or death.

Written by: Edward Olivier

Reviewers Rating: 9.5
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