Nov 8, 2011

12 angry men[1957]


12 angry men is a 1957 classic about a jury in deliberation of a murder case.

You have 12 men, no names, one room and 1h and 36 minutes to kill. What do you do?The best men to ask are Reginald Rose, who wrote the screenplay and Sidney Lumet, who directed it. They both did a wonderful job in capturing not only the essence of the story and the morality of it, but also the emotions and characters of the 12 men.

Juror number 1 is the president and tries his best to manage the chaos in the room. 2 is a simple, quiet, guy, who doesn't dare to speak, but believes in the greater good in mankind. 3 is a real pain in the ass and doesn't go down without a fight and 4 is a very hard man to convince who, surprisingly, doesn't sweat. 5 and 6 are pretty normal guys, but 7 is a piece of art- he just can't wait to go to this stupid baseball match. 8 is the real star, the man who questions everything and the kind of juror the defense autorney wants to have. 9 is a sweet old man who's happy to be there and help, but you just dislike number 10, he is so grumpy. 11 always fights for his point of view, but 12 doesn't pay attention that much, unless it has something to do with him- the advertising agency sindrom, it was quite common those days.

There were some great moments there: the close-ups of the jurors, the scene were each one stands up and gets away from the non-sense, angry juror 10, and every scene where they figure out that something is not right! Henry Fonda, as juror 8, is, of course, amazing and that applies to almost everyone in that room!

A true classic that you should see if you haven't already!

6 comments:

  1. It seems that everywhere I go today people are writing about classic films!!

    I am so sucky at watching them. I need to sort it OUT!!

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  2. Sam as Scott above... I made a top 10 of classics I need to see about six months ago and I've watched about 3 off it so far. And this isn't one of them. Your post has spurred me on a little bit!

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  3. One of my favorite films. Its script, I think, is one of the 10 best American screenplays ever produced.

    Glad to see that you liked it!

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  4. Agreed. One of the best screenplays ever conceived and written. I don't have any flaws with it. Only saw it for the first time this year too...

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  5. @Scott: Yes, you should sort it out, you have to see a couple, at least the most famous ones!
    @pturner1010: go for it!make time for one more this week!
    @Alex and @Andy: yes, script-wise, it's wonderful and very cleverly made!

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  6. A truly great film and one of my rare five out of five star ratings. I reviewed it here, if you are curious:

    http://www.tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2011/10/movie-12-angry-men-1957.html

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