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Standing Alone: 12 Angry Men (1957)
Review Copyright Roger Zotti, 2002
The eighteen-year-old defendant's alibi is weak. The knife he owned is similar to the one found at the crime scene. An eye witness said he saw him murder his father.
But before juror #8 finds the defendant guilty, he wants to be certain. "It's not easy to raise my hand and send a boy off to die without talking about it first," he says..."We're talking about somebody's life here. We can't decide it in five minutes. Supposing we're wrong."
Henry Fonda plays the dissenting juror in Sidney Lumet's classic 12 Angry Men.
The other jurors are played by an impressive group of character actors, including Jack Warden, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Martin Balsam, George Voskovec, Jack Klugman, and Ed Begley.
Warden's juror #7 is the most disturbing. He's not concerned with the guilt or innocence of the accused, Rather, his main concern is, he says, to get "out of her pretty quick. I don't know about the rest of you. But I happen to have two tickets to that ball game tonight. Yanks and Cleveland."
Cobb's juror is frightening and intimidating. He's a bitter, bigoted, and violent man.
At one point he explodes. "You all come in here with your bleeding hearts all over the floor about slum kids and injustice," he says. "You listen to some fairy tale." Looking at juror #8, he cries out in anger. "Suddenly you start getting through to these old ladies. Well, you're not getting through to me. I've had enough. What's the matter with you? You all know he's guilty. He's got to burn."
Though Fonda's character emerges as the film's hero, we shouldn't overlook the contributions of Joseph Sweeney's and John Fiedler's jurors. Sweeney, the oldest juror, is the first to change his vote to not guilty because, he says, "This gentleman has been standing alone against us. Now, he doesn't say the boy is not guilty. He just isn't sure. Well, it's not easy to stand alone against the ridicule of others. So he gambled for support. And I gave it to him."
Fielder's character, quiet and shy, remembers the title of a film that's essential to the defendant's case.
Near the end, anger and disgust overtake George Voskovec's juror, when Warden's juror changes his vote to not guilty. He confronts Warden's juror and says: "You have sat here and voted guilty with everyone else because there are some baseball tickets burning a hole in your pocket, and now you've changed your vote because you say you're sick of all the talking here. Who tells you have the right to play like this with a man's life? Don't you care?"
Reginald Rose's tense screenplay keeps us engaged from the start.
Boris Kaufman's cinematography is terrific. Because of his carefully selected close-ups, we come to know each juror.
Lumet's direction is unobtrusive and concise. It keeps us involved for the entire film.
12 Angry Men is a suspenseful confrontation between a dozen disparate men with differing personalities and outlooks on life.
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