I chose to review 12 Angry Men because I have heard about the film growing up, through family and friends, but have never had the time to watch it. The film is based on a play and tells the story of a lone juror who tries to get a man acquitted by putting up evidence of reasonable doubt. No names where used in the film, the suspect was known as the ‘boy’ and there was also ‘the old man’ and the ‘lady across the street’, and all jurors where given a number and not a name which helped emphasize what I’m guessing the point of the play and film is: innocent until proved guilty and not vise versa.
I know that when this film was made all movies were in black and white but I felt that if this would have been in color the majority of the suspense would be gone. Black and white movies need to have substance to keep the audiences attention. Frankly, color movies had a great advantage because in the lags of great screenwriting there will be some colorful object to distract the viewer, which cannot be done in a black and white movie. I was a little hesitant to watch the film because I didn’t know if my attention could be held but the great writing and acting and visual aspects had my full attention, which rarely happens. I was also surprised at how I missed a few things in the film. I realized that the day was hot but it never occurred to me that the men wouldn’t care what happened to the boy, as long as they got out before dinner. My dad had to point out a few of those little, but also large, things in the movie that could of been overlooked.
The movie takes place in the deliberation room for the jurors. There is about five minutes at the beginning of the film where the jurors are in the court room hearing the final statements of the defendant and prosecutor but besides that scene and a brief one in a wash room the jurors room is the sole point of interest for the film. The shots that the director takes, zooming in on someones face, going back and forth from a large room to a single subject reminded me how difficult shot composition is. There was also heavy emphasis on the sweat that was coming from all of the jurors, showing that emotions were especially high in an atmosphere where the conditions were not at all comfortable. My favorite was the close up of the different faces. When a film is not well acted the close ups can get old quickly but in 12 Angry Men the close ups seemed to show the viewer a piece of that characters soul. This was a great film and even though I had heard good things about it I really couldn’t praise it enough.
