12 Angry Men

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’12 Angry Men’ ’12 Angry Men’ is a dramatic film directed by Sidney Lumet. This film sends a serious message about prejudice. The film is about twelve men who make up the Jury, which have to decide if the boy who murdered his father is guilty or not. Everyone votes guilty except Juror 8. He tries to change the jurors’ minds by talking to them about the evidence and not just voting guilty because they do not like where they boy has come from. The hardest person to persuade is Juror 3, who is the angriest as we find out later in the film. Juror 10 does not like people who come from the slums so he is going to be prejudiced about this, which will cause some trouble since Juror 5 who has come from the slums as well. Juror 8 manages to change everyone’s vote and save the boy after Juror 3 breaks down in tears and learns that he has been defeated. This is a clever and interesting film, in which the director succeeds in both entertaining the audience and exploring a serious message. One way Lumet succeeds in entertaining the audience is through the excellent use of the opening sequence. In the opening shot, Lumet tracks the camera up the columns of the courthouse to the word ‘justice’. We realise that the film is going to be a courtroom drama and justice will be the main theme. We are shown the courtroom, we realise through the judge that the case has ended and the jury are ready to retire. The judge is bored, which is shown through his body language and through the dialogue. This tells us that the judge is already fed up with the case and the boy has got no chance of surviving. We are also shown the jurors as the scene continues. When the scene moves from the courtroom to jury room, we begin to learn about the jurors’. The men enter the room one by one and prepare for what is going to happen next. The men are trying to cool down since it is a very hot day. They try

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