12 Angry Men
 | Directed by Sidney Lumet Starring: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, E.G. Marshall MGM (Video & DVD), 1957, DVD Customer Rating: 242 reviews Recommend This product is currently not available and cannot be purchased. It means that we have no merchant offers for this product at the moment or it was discontinued by the manufacturer. |
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Eleven jurors are convinced that the defendant is guilty of murder. The twelfth has no doubt of his innocence. How can this one man steer the others toward the same conclusion? It's a case of seemingly overwhelming evidence against a teenager accused of killing his father in "one of the best pictures ever made" (The Hollywood Reporter).
Sidney Lumet's directorial debut remains a tense, atmospheric (though slightly manipulative and stagy) courtroom thriller, in which the viewer never sees a trial and the only action is verbal. As he does in his later corruption commentaries such as Serpico or Q & A, Lumet focuses on the lonely one-man battles of a protagonist whose ethics alienate him from the rest of jaded society. As the film opens, the seemingly open-and-shut trial of a young Puerto Rican accused of murdering his father with a knife has just concluded and the 12-man jury retires to their microscopic, sweltering quarters to decide the verdict. When the votes are counted, 11 men rule guilty, while one — played by Henry Fonda, again typecast as another liberal, truth-seeking hero — doubts the obvious. Stressing the idea of "reasonable doubt," Fonda slowly chips away at the jury, who represent a microcosm of white, male society — exposing the prejudices and preconceptions that directly influence the other jurors' snap judgments. The tight script by Reginald Rose (based on his own teleplay) presents each juror vividly using detailed soliloquies, all which are expertly performed by the film's flawless cast. Still, it's Lumet's claustrophobic direction — all sweaty close-ups and cramped compositions within a one-room setting — that really transforms this contrived story into an explosive and compelling nail-biter. — Dave McCoy
Title: 12 Angry Men
Sales Rank: 10784 in DVD
Actor: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, E.G. Marshall
Director: Sidney Lumet
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD), 2001-03-06, Theatrical Release: 1957
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC, Acpect Ratio 1.66:1
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region Code: 1
Running Time: 96 minutes
Package Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches, 0.2 pounds
- A Classic Among Classics
- Ok, you have 12 guys that spend the entire movies huddled in a small jury discussion room and do nothing but talk for 90 min. How is that interesting? Let me tell you, the first time I watched this movie, I was riveted. The casting director should have won an Oscar for how well he crafted this ensemble. Every one of these… More reviews
- Despite The Desire To Never See It Again, a Good Film
- 12 Angry Men is perhaps the only courtroom drama (To Kill a Mockingbird transceds the genre itself, which is, by the way, a classic movie) that is worth watching. 12 Angry Men deals with a murder trial. The murder trial deals whether or not an 18 year old boy is guily or innocent, dealing with the case that the eighteen year old boy… More reviews
- Not to be Repeated
- As I find myself now going for years without going to the movies, at times I have asked myself whether I've just lost enthusiasm for them, or perhaps it's just middle age.
No! We don't have this quality of film come to screen often anymore, being too worried about someone's virginity or frat-boy antics, or cheap horror.
As a prior… More reviews
- 12 Angry Men DVD
- Distributor was great; received the DVD in quicker than expected. The DVD itself is wonderful, with a nice bonus documentary about the making of 12 Angry Men.… More reviews
- Still Great After All These Years
- Teenagers today are supposed to refuse to watch black and white, and to sniff at anything more than 15 minutes old. Several people told me to get the remake of this instead of the original, but when I showed it to 95 undergraduates they were completely spellbound (that means quiet) and active in discussion afterwards. It may be old, and outdated in parts (unlikely that a juror would… More reviews
