Random Critics

Schindler's List was among the major cultural events of 1993, a superbly realized remembrance of European Jews who suffered genocidal persecution duri...
by Richard Gilliam for Schindler's List
The caped crusader gets a stunning dose of hardcore dramatics in The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan's ambitious follow-up to Batman Begins. H...
by Jeremy Wheeler for The Dark Knight
A critical sensation and a box-office hit, Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994) embedded its movie-made world of loquacious hit men and fateful coi...
by Lucia Bozzola for Pulp Fiction

Actors / Actresses

This box will be activated soon...

12 Angry Men Movie Content 1957 Production

Some Photos




See All Photos of 12 Angry Men


Director :
Sidney Lumet

Writers :
Reginald Rose

Genre :
Drama

Cast :
Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Ed Binns, Jack Warden, Henry Fonda, Joseph Sweeney, Ed Begley, George Voskovec, Robert Webber

Summary :
A Puerto Rican youth is on trial for murder, accused of knifing his father to death. The twelve jurors retire to the jury room, having been admonished that the defendant is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Eleven of the jurors vote for conviction, each for reasons of his own. The sole holdout is Juror 8, played by Henry Fonda. As Fonda persuades the weary jurors to re-examine the evidence, we learn the backstory of each man. Juror 3 (Lee J. Cobb), a bullying self-made man, has estranged himself from his own son. Juror 7 (Jack Warden) has an ingrained mistrust of foreigners; so, to a lesser extent, does Juror 6 (Edward Binns). Jurors 10 (Ed Begley) and 11 (George Voskovec), so certain of the infallibility of the Law, assume that if the boy was arrested, he must be guilty. Juror 4 (E.G. Marshall) is an advocate of dispassionate deductive reasoning. Juror 5 (Jack Klugman), like the defendant a product of "the streets," hopes that his guilty vote will distance himself from his past. Juror 12 (Robert Webber), an advertising man, doesn't understand anything that he can't package and market. And Jurors 1 (Martin Balsam), 2 (John Fiedler) and 9 (Joseph Sweeney), anxious not to make waves, "go with the flow." The excruciatingly hot day drags into an even hotter night; still, Fonda chips away at the guilty verdict, insisting that his fellow jurors bear in mind those words "reasonable doubt." A pet project of Henry Fonda's, Twelve Angry Men was his only foray into film production; the actor's partner in this venture was Reginald Rose, who wrote the 1954 television play on which the film was based. Carried over from the TV version was director Sidney Lumet, here making his feature-film debut. A flop when it first came out (surprisingly, since it cost almost nothing to make), Twelve Angry Men holds up beautifully when seen today. It was remade for television in 1997 by director William Friedkin with Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott.

Critics

Dan Jardine :
Twelve Angry Men is a tightly wound top of a movie. Each scene ratchets up the tension another notch as Henry Fonda's character tries desperately to open the minds of his fellow jurors. The setting -- a claustrophobic jury room in the dog days of summer -- superbly augments the suspense. Operating within the constraints of a small budget, first-time director Sidney Lumet tightens the noose by accentuating the throbbing pulse of the ceiling fan and slowly narrowing his shots on his characters as the film approaches its climax. Based on Reginald Rose's well-known play, which had been adapted to the television screen three years earlier, Twelve Angry Men boasts a series of excellent performances by young actors who would soon become household names, including Jack Klugman, Jack Warden, and Martin Balsam. However, it is the film's established stars -- Lee J. Cobb, E. G. Marshall and most importantly Fonda -- who play the leads, delivering the goods like seasoned pros. The film has instructional value as a study of the inherent strengths and weaknesses of the jury system, but its real value is how it allows each member of the cultural mosaic of a jury to develop into distinct, damaged, and interesting characters. In a well-crafted metaphor for the broader outline of society, the jury members must confront their prejudices in order to see that justice prevails. Nominated for three Oscars, Twelve Angry Men ran into the juggernaut of Bridge on the River Kwai and came up empty handed.