#87 12 Angry Men (1957)

This is proof that films don't need a big budget, fancy special effects, or even more than a single scene to become a classic.

These 12 angry men are jurors for a case involving an 18-year-old accused of stabbing his father to death. We don't see any of the case itself; we only see the jurors discussing the verdict. It begins as an open-and-shut case, but a single juror believes that instead of immediately convicting the defendant, they should at least do him the honor of discussing the case. Through the course of the (short) movie, the one dissenting juror attempts to convince the other jurors one by one that they all have reasonable doubt that the young man is guilty.

I think this movie has powerful messages about the U.S. justice system. We are innocent until proven guilty, and each and every one of us deserves a fair trial...even the ones of us living on the rougher side of town. It also felt to me at first a division of conservatives and liberals, but in the end, all men agreeing on what is the right thing to do.

I read Roger Ebert's review of this movie, and he goes into the cinematography of the film. The director gradually changes lenses of longer focal lengths, so that as the movie goes on, the room starts to look and feel smaller. They also begin the movie shooting above eye level of the characters, so that you feel that the characters are manageable and understandable, but they slowly shift to shooting from below so that the characters seem more overwhleming, the ceiling can be seen and that it seems that not only the walls are closing in, but the ceiling is closing in as well.

Rating: 9/10

Big Names: Henry Fonda (co-producer and the dissenting juror)