The defendant doesn't have to open his mouth. That's in the Constitution. The Fifth Amendment. You've heard of it. And when Juror 10 says that the jurors shouldn't believe the defendant because he's not white, 8 asks, "How come you believed [the non-white witness]?
She's one of 'them,' too, isn't she? Despite all of Juror 8's tricky arguments, he never really gets any traction for a Not Guilty verdict until he shows the other men some solid evidence.
This sets us up for one of the most dramatic moments in the movie, when 8 pulls a knife exactly like the murder weapon out of his pocket and jams it into the table, saying, "I got it last night in a little junk shop around the corner from the boy's house. It cost two dollars. On top of everything else we know about him, we know that 8 has a little flair for the dramatic.
So, all right, Juror 8 is dramatic, just, kind, and smart. But none of these things would get him anywhere with the other jurors if he weren't willing to put himself out there and take risks. He takes his biggest risk of all early in the movie when he says, "I want to call for a vote. I want you eleven men to vote by secret ballot. I'll abstain. If there are still eleven votes for guilty, I won't stand alone.
We'll take in a guilty verdict right now. If this vote once again went for a unanimous Guilty verdict, this movie would be over, and there'd be nothing else to talk about. James Kelly Guard as Guard uncredited. Sidney Lumet. Reginald Rose story screenplay. More like this. Watch options.
Storyline Edit. The defense and the prosecution have rested, and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young man is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open-and-shut case of murder soon becomes a detective story that presents a succession of clues creating doubt, and a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, AND each other.
Based on the play, all of the action takes place on the stage of the jury room. Did you know Edit. Trivia At the beginning of the film, the cameras are all positioned above eye level and mounted with wide-angle lenses to give the appearance of greater distance between the subjects.
As the film progresses the cameras slip down to eye level. By the end of the film, nearly all of it is shot below eye level, in close-up and with telephoto lenses to increase the encroaching sense of claustrophobia.
Goofs Within the last half hour of the movie, the clock on the wall in the jury room can be seen indicating Several minutes later, E. Marshall states that it is "a quarter after six". Several minutes after that, the wall clock is seen again, but still shows Still later, when Lee J. Cobb leans over the table after he tears up the snapshot from his wallet, his watch can be seen indicating Quotes Juror 8 : Let me ask you this: Do you really think the boy'd shout out a thing like that so the whole neighborhood could hear him?
Crazy credits At the end of the film, the actors are billed in order of their juror numbers; thus Henry Fonda , although the star of the film, appears 8th. User reviews 1. Top review. If you only ever see one Black and White movie, make this it. I watched this film for the first time, when it was shown at about 1 o'clock in the morning.
I made an effort to see it as it is rated as one of the best movies ever made, however I must admit that I watched it with a sense of reluctance as I'm not a great one for old "classics". This film blew me away however; how ignorant can I be about old films?
How many other pres gems are there out there that I haven't seen? What strikes me most about this film is how progressive it is for its day. Indeed the issues this film makes about American society of the s, still ring true for western society today.
This film concerns twelve jurors debating the sentence of an 18 year old Puerto Rican boy who on the face of it, has no real alibi. However one man, played brilliantly by Henry Fonda, is ill-at ease putting a young boy to death without even debating his case, much to the despair of the other jurors. What follows is a brilliant piece of film making, slowly revealing many of the juror's complex characters to the audience as they react to Fonda's concerns with their own mix of metal scars, prejudices and insecurities.
What especially struck me about this film is how ordinary most of the characters are, none of the jurors are shown to be especially bad men, indeed most are portrayed as honest everyman type people. This relationship becomes very important in how 3rd Juror and 8th Juror understand the accused. Both identify over the play as fathers. He stands up for him in a very paternal way and empathizes with the plight of his life. Conversely, 8th Juror projects onto the accused his relationship with his own son, from whom he has been estranged for two years.
The result is that 3rd Juror is immediately prejudiced against him. This play is in many ways a multi-generational play, featuring men of many different age groups; this coupled with the fact that the play is all-male definitely embeds the patriarchy of the times as well.
No names whatsoever and almost no specifics are used throughout the play. The jurors are simply referred to as a number, and the defendant is referred to as "defendant," "accused," "boy," etc.
Even the witnesses are, "the downstairs neighbor," "the old man," etc. Ignoring the opening stage directions, there are no indications of time and place, except that it is summer and the fact that the play is all men - which does date it, but even that can and has frequently been changed in production.
The effect is that the play is not fixed. It could be the jury room of your trial or your neighbor's. It could be New York. It could be Wisconsin. The characters are less specific individuals and more of a general representation of the American population. These are everyday people that could very well be on your jury.
This sense of anonymity raises the stakes of the play as a social drama, in that is a more general commentary on the American legal system. The Question and Answer section for 12 Angry Men is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. Group Think in the Play. World Shaker question.
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