The film is less a murder mystery than it is an examination of the characters of the twelve men who are locked together in a small room on the hottest day of the year, and a study of the individual backgrounds, experiences, and prejudices which inform their opinions on the case. In fact, my older brother who is a business professor frequently shows Twelve Angry Men to his Organizational Behaviour class and has the students analyze how each man interacts within the group. Actually, that's how I was introduced to the film in the first place; my brother used his younger siblings as guinea pigs, trying it out on us before showing it to his class for the first time. Fortunately, it's a fascinating movie; the verdict in it is, frankly, a bit suspect, but the writing and the acting is superb. That's not surprising, considering that the cast includes, besides Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Jack Klugman, Ed Begley, and E.G. Marshall to name a few. All in all, a great film which stands up to multiple viewings and is worth tracking down if you've never seen it.
This week we watched Twelve Angry Men, the 1957 courtroom drama- or rather, jury room drama, because that's where the entire film except for a few minutes takes place. The movie is about twelve men on the jury for a murder trial. A teenage boy from the slums is accused of having stabbed his father to death; the evidence against him is circumstantial but seems overwhelming, the verdict assured. Or is it? Henry Fonda plays the lone juror who doesn't wish to rush to judgement, gradually swaying others to his side. The film is less a murder mystery than it is an examination of the characters of the twelve men who are locked together in a small room on the hottest day of the year, and a study of the individual backgrounds, experiences, and prejudices which inform their opinions on the case. In fact, my older brother who is a business professor frequently shows Twelve Angry Men to his Organizational Behaviour class and has the students analyze how each man interacts within the group. Actually, that's how I was introduced to the film in the first place; my brother used his younger siblings as guinea pigs, trying it out on us before showing it to his class for the first time. Fortunately, it's a fascinating movie; the verdict in it is, frankly, a bit suspect, but the writing and the acting is superb. That's not surprising, considering that the cast includes, besides Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Jack Klugman, Ed Begley, and E.G. Marshall to name a few. All in all, a great film which stands up to multiple viewings and is worth tracking down if you've never seen it.
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