12 Angry Men(John)

When we think of movies, we generally think of actors portraying a specific role. They act out these roles in many locales. It may be from a train station to an apartment building, but these setting are there to push the story forward and give the audience some kind of perspective. In 12 Angry Men, the film manages to do this with only one setting: a jury room.

Ok, acting. There was an all-star cast in this film. Henry Fonda, Ed Begley and John Fiedler are just a few of the stars in the film. The performance that shined the most to me had to be either Lee Cobb or Ed Begley's character. Cobb played this very hard man with unshakable resolve and Begley played a very loud-mouthed prejudiced man. Both of these performances I thought were great. Cobb's character was diverse. He was a tough man who yelled a lot but at the same time, he was a loving father who had shunned his son. Because he hadn't spoken to his son in some time, he subconsciously was taking his anger out on the jurors and the boy who was on trial. Begley's character was interesting simply because he was openly prejudiced against the boy. I thought the scene where he was trying to make his case and no one was listening was a very powerful scene and had a lot of truth to it. Every character in the film had their own personalities and it was interesting to see them co-exist for a short time in the jury room.

The story was quite simplistic. A jury of 12 is tasked with determining if a boy killed his father. The way the story was told was the amazing part. The entire trial is told in the third person by the jurors as they try to determine if the boy is guilty or not. As the movie played out, I started to imagine the crime scene and the boy on the witness stand. Since we the audience were not shown the trial, it is up to us to imagine what it was like through these men talking about it. I think it is really amazing that this movie was able to pull this off so flawlessly. I loved the little side-stories that we were told about some of the characters. For instance, the information we learn about Lee Cobb's character was particularly interesting and very important to the plot.

The camera work was sufficient. There were a few scenes where the camera kept zooming in on the old man and I found this very odd. I didn't understand why they felt the need to zoom in on his face but not others. To add to this, the man kept making creepy faces. This is a small complaint but I could not help but laugh during these scenes and I'm pretty sure they were not meant to be funny.

This is probably the best black and white movie I've ever seen. It's not my favorite but it definitely is the best. The achievement of telling a compelling story within only one setting is enough for me to recommend it to anyone. Add good acting, well developed characters and excellent dialogue and it becomes a must watch.

I'll give it a 9 out of 10.

- John Murphy