Saturday, April 24, 2010

12 Angry Men (1957)

Director: Sidney Lumet. Cast: Henry Fonda, Martin Balsam, Lee J. Cobb, Jack Klugman, Jack Warden. 96 min. Unrated. Drama.

Now this is vintage Lumet. The genius of the script and direction is that from the very beginning, when you see eleven jurors of a homicide case voting guilty and one voting not guilty (for the simple reason of "Let's talk about it ..."), you know for a fact that by the end of the movie, the votes will drastically change. But the point is, how those votes change, and how Lumet performs his act as smooth, seamless and believable as you could imagine. The power of simple dialogue. A must see classic.

Mo says:

2 comments:

  1. I couldn't agree more,this is one of the best classic movies ever made which respects audience's intelligent. I love the way of making movie that entire story took place in one room, just talking,provoking each other to think,to doubt , reasoning,even giving new idea and theory they had no idea about it at first!(like waht elderly did at final ) ,and finally reaching to a common point ,regardless it's true or not ...A very beautiful picture of raising" doubt " and more beautifully,illustration a sample of a perfect dynamic team.
    The trivia of movie focus on special technique used for camera lenz which sounds interesting and apparantly Lumet was pioneer in that.

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  2. Exactly. The film nicely demonstrates how simply talking (mixed with some patience) can overturn actions as violent as a death sentence - and make people reconsider everything along the way. Makes you wonder how many wars, killings and quarrels could be or could have been avoided, if people were simply given the chance to talk to each other.

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