Film Summary 12 Angry Men

996 Words4 Pages
Sidney Lumet’s first film, 12 Angry Men, is a single-room film about jury-disputing. If 12 jurors fail to find reasonable doubt, an eighteen-year-old boy will sentence to death due to the charge of being the murderer of his father. In the first vote, 11 think the boy is guilty; the one left simply thinks it is too soon to make this decision. The other men get choleric and present the evidence to persuade him. The speech not only shows their thoughts but their attitudes and prejudices. As they continue to debating the details, contradictions are found from the testimonies one by one. The process is arduous and tortuous. As more and more jurors conquer their own prejudices, they finally come to the agreement of the existence of reasonable doubt. With only 350,000 dollars cost and finished in less than 3 weeks, Lumet as TV show director defines how to be thrift and efficient. Low investment, but high quality. A black-and-white film with brilliant dialogues and various shots, seldom audience feel boring or dull, instead the film draws them into the play and keeps them “What do you think?” As a winner of Golden Bear and several other prizes, it has become a classic trial film which explores juror system, justice, social responsibility, as well as human nature. A jury consisting of twelve nameless, ordinary people from different classes and careers need to decide whether a defendant is guilty or not in a sultry and claustrophobic room. They’ve listened to the trial for six days, and most of them believe the boy is the murderer. Only #8 holds an opposite view and votes not guilty in the preliminary vote. Due to complex reasons of hot weather, prejudices and eagerness to leave, the “guilty” part takes a lot of persuasion to convince this minority. Obviously, #8 is calm and smart, he easily discoveries flaws in their speech, draws questions and debates the possibility
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