BEFORE: From one murder trial to another, and from a Best Picture Winner (2002) to a Best Picture nominee (1957). It was up against "Witness for the Prosecution", so perhaps it split the legal-thriller vote, allowing "The Bridge On the River Kwai" to win.
THE PLOT: A dissenting juror in a murder trial slowly manages to convince the others that the case is not as obviously clear as it seemed in court.
AFTER: This film deals with a deadlocked jury - a plot which later became the 2nd most common sitcom plot in the 1970's, right after "getting locked in the bank vault/meat locker/elevator" and before "the cast goes on a cruise/Hawaiian vacation". But this is the original, not a knock-off.
Plus it's universal - we all have to serve on jury duty, right? Except women - note the title "12 Angry MEN". Fun fact - in 1957 women were (apparently) considered too fragile to serve on a murder case. No, this is an all testosterone affair - as 12 men sit in a jury room and vote on the guilt or innocence of a boy accused of killing his father.
Henry Fonda plays the lone stand-out - but as he expresses his doubts about the case, he starts to point out some inconsistencies. And as some of the other jurors start to have doubts, the room erupts in a sort of class warfare. Rich vs. poor, old vs. young, citizen vs. immigrant, even bigot vs. umm...non-bigot. And one guy who wants to vote with the group just so he can make the Yankees game.
The fact that the jury members have (reasonable?) doubts is significant - however, they're charged with rendering a verdict on only the evidence that was presented in the case. What they end up doing in the jury room is bringing a lot of their own ideas and concepts into the mix, testing some theories of their own invention, and even bringing in a piece of external evidence that wasn't presented at trial - so unfortunately that seems to be against the spirit of the jury system.
But, the point was made that the accused boy's lawyer barely seemed interested in the case, and didn't seem to be mounting much of a defense. So the jury was really doing the work of the defense attorney - we could assume that a better lawyer would have brought up some of the same points that, in this case, were reasoned out by the jury.
Still, it's a brilliant peek into the psyches of 12 individuals, and a look at how people think, as part of a group mentality. The U.S. legal system relies on mostly random individuals, and it's interesting to ponder the way this causes the system to work (or fail). I've pulled jury duty twice in New York, and both times the jury was dismissed - once due to a settlement, and once due to a mistrial. So I've never had to vote on a verdict. (Thank God...)
But I will be sequestered watching more legal-based films for the next week and a half...
Also starring Martin Balsam (last seen in "Tora! Tora! Tora!"), Jack Klugman (last seen in "Dear God"), Jack Warden (last seen in "Chairman of the Board"), E.G. Marshall (also last seen in "Tora! Tora! Tora!"), Lee J. Cobb (last seen in "On the Waterfront"), and Ed Begley Sr. Also John Fiedler, later known as the voice of Piglet in "Winnie the Pooh" cartoons, and as recurring patient Mr. Peterson on "The Bob Newhart Show".
RATING: 7 out of 10 secret ballots
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