12 Angry Men

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12 Angry Men is a 1957 film which tells the story of one lone juror who holds out against the other eleven members of the jury because he is not convinced that the defendent is guilty. It stars Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley and E.G. Marshall.

The first vote is 11-1 and the 11 jurors are angry at Henry Fonda's character for being the lone holdout. He says that it is morally wrong (and illegal) to condemn a man to death while even one juror has a reasonable doubt. Gradually, Fonda convinces every man on the jury that the defendant's guilt was not conclusively proved to convict him.

The movie was adapted by Reginald Rose from his story, and directed by Sidney Lumet; Boris Kaufman was the cinematographer.

The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.

None of the characters in the film are given a name; they are all identified by juror numbers, until the very end when Fonda meets up with Joseph Sweeney's character. Fonda's character's name is Davis, Sweeney's is McCardle.

The film was shot in 19 days on a budget of $349,000. It starts with wider lenses above eye level; by the end of the film nearly everyone is shown in closeup using a long lens from a low angle. (Wider lenses give the appearance of greater distance between objects; longer lenses give the appearance of "shortening" distance, while at the same time decreasing depth of field.) Lumet states that his intention was to cause a nearly palpable claustrophobia; and by most accounts he succeeded.

The film was parodied on BBC television in an episode of Hancock's Half Hour, starring Tony Hancock and Sid James.

The screenplay had first been produced on television, on the program Studio One, in 1954. No complete kinescope of that performance has been found.

12 Angry Men was remade for television in 1997, starring George C. Scott, James Gandolfini, Tony Danza, and Jack Lemmon. In this remake, the accused is an Hispanic, while the judge is a woman.

12 Angry Men is sometimes studied as literature. Some of the screenplays have been published and Rose wrote several stage adaptations of the story. Other theatrical adaptations in which female actors are cast as jurors are called 12 Angry Jurors or 12 Angry Women.

References

• Making Movies, by Sidney Lumet. (c) 1995, ISBN 0-679-75660-4