Review of 12 Angry Men (1957) by Bradley W — 05 Jun 2012

12 Angry Men is an incredible tenseful and masterful piece of film, which has shown not all great courtroom dramas have to be in a courtroom. This film stays in this one room for about 90 minutes and shows twelve jurors arguing over if this accused young boy was a murderer, and the only one who wants to look at the facts is the 8th Juror played by the brilliant Henry Fonda.

Fonda's character has no backround, he also has no name, no career that we know of, and we just know nothing about him other than he is a good and fair man. He does want to send some poor 18 year old boy to his death without looking at the facts, and with his cunning and belief in probability he is able to show the other jurors the error of their ways.

Henry Fonda plays the man with great lengths, he is so calm and collected during the film and he doesn't care what ridicule the other men say to him. All the actor in the film were terriffic and I think its all their performances that drive these great characters.

What is great about the characters is that we know nothing about them, and we slowly get to know them better as the film moves on and why some of them still have personal issues that make them think the boy is guilty.

As the film goes on we can feel the tension getting hotter and hotter between the men, and I just loved how I got chills from all the anger. This film is a modern marvel and shows different points of view from people in society, and I think this genius drama should be commended for its teachings that you should never believe something just because everyone else does, and that justice should always decide a man's fate.