12 Angry Men (1957 film)
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| 12 Angry Men | |
|---|---|
| File:12 angry men.jpg original film poster | |
| Directed by | Sidney Lumet |
| Written by | Reginald Rose |
| Produced by | Henry Fonda Reginald Rose |
| Starring | Henry Fonda Lee J. Cobb E.G. Marshall Martin Balsam John Fiedler Jack Klugman Ed Binns Jack Warden Joseph Sweeney Ed Begley George Voskovec Robert Webber |
| Cinematography | Boris Kaufman |
| Edited by | Carl Lerner |
| Music by | Kenyon Hopkins |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release dates |  13 April, 1957 |
Running time | 96 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $340,000 (estimated) |
12 Angry Men (released in the UK as Twelve Angry Men) is an American drama film produced in 1957 by first time director Sidney Lumet based on the play 12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose. It is about a jury member who must try to persuade the other 11 members to acquit the suspect on trial on the basis of reasonable doubt. The film is notable for its use of a single set: with the exception of three minutes of screen-time split between the beginning and the end and two short scenes in an adjoining washroom, the entire movie takes place in the jury room.
The ensemble cast includes Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley, John Fiedler, E.G. Marshall, Jack Warden, Ed Binns, Martin Balsam, Jack Klugman, George Voskovec, Robert Webber, and Joseph Sweeney (his last appearance in motion pictures).
Plot summary
The story begins after closing arguments have been presented in a murder case, as the judge is giving his instructions to the jury. According to American law at the time, any jury that will decide whether the death penalty is appropriate must be unanimous. The question they are deciding is whether the defendant, an 18-year-old man, murdered his father. The jury is further instructed that a guilty verdict will be accompanied by a mandatory death sentence (something that could not happen in the current American legal system). The twelve move to the jury room, where they begin to become acquainted with each others' personalities and discuss the case. The plot of the film revolves around their difficulty in reaching a unanimous verdict due, in some cases, to the jurors' prejudices. Throughout their deliberation, not a single juror calls another by name because their names are unknown to each other; however at the end, Sweeney's and Fonda's characters tell their last names (McArdle and Davis, respectively).
Production
Reginald Rose's screenplay for 12 Angry Men was initially produced for television, and was broadcast on the CBS program Studio One in 1954. A complete kinescope of that performance, which had been missing for years and feared lost, was finally discovered in 2003.
The success of the TV film resulted in a film adaptation. Sidney Lumet, whose prior directorial credits included dramas for television productions such as the Alcoa Hour and Studio One, was recruited by Henry Fonda and Rose to direct. 12 Angry Men was Lumet's first feature film, and for Fonda and Rose, who co-produced the film, it was their first and only roles as film producers. Fonda later stated that he would never again produce a film.
The filming was completed after a short but rigorous rehearsal schedule in less than three weeks on a budget of about $350,000.
At the beginning of the film, the cameras are positioned above eye level and mounted with wide-angle lenses to give the appearance of greater depth between subjects, but as the film progresses the focal length of the lenses is gradually increased. By the end of the film, nearly everyone is shown in closeup using telephoto lenses from a lower angle, which decreases or "shortens" depth of field. Lumet, who began his career as a director of photography, stated that his intention in using these techniques with cinematographer Boris Kaufman was to create a nearly palpable claustrophobia.
Responses
Critical responses
On its first release, 12 Angry Men received critical acclaim. A. H. Weiler of The New York Times wrote "It makes for taut, absorbing, and compelling drama that reaches far beyond the close confines of its jury room setting." His observation of the 12 men was that "their dramas are powerful and provocative enough to keep a viewer spellbound." However, it was not a popular success: the advent of color and widescreen productions resulted in the film receiving a disappointing box office performance.
Today, the film is viewed as a "classic" and is highly regarded from both a critical and popular viewpoint: Roger Ebert lists it as one of his "Great Movies," and it has been consistently ranked in the top 14 of the Internet Movie Database Top 250 List. It also has a 97% rating on both critics and users polls at the site Rotten Tomatoes. The American Film Institute named Juror #8, played by Henry Fonda, the 28th greatest movie hero of the 20th century, named 12 Angry Men the 42nd most inspiring film, and recently, named it the 87th best film of the past hundred years.
Awards
The film was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Director, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium. In all of these categories, the film was eclipsed by The Bridge on the River Kwai, which won seven Academy Awards that year. At the Berlin International Film Festival, the film won the Golden Bear Award.
Remake and other adaptations
Film and TV
12 Angry Men was remade for television in 1997. Directed by William Friedkin, the remake stars George C. Scott, James Gandolfini, Tony Danza, William Petersen, Ossie Davis, Hume Cronyn, Courtney B. Vance, and Jack Lemmon. In this production, the judge is a woman and four of the jurors are African American. (In interviews, producers said they decided against putting a woman in the jury because they didn't want to change the title.) Still, most of the action and dialogue of the film is identical to the original. Modernizations include a prohibition on smoking in the jury room, the changing of references to income and pop culture figures, more dialogue relating to race, and occasional profanity.
The film's premise has been utilized (both dramatically and comically) in several TV shows, including:
- 3rd Rock from the Sun, "Eleven Angry Men and One Dick", 1997 (the defendant is obviously guilty of telemarketing fraud, but the defendant has a friendly personality and Dick can't bring himself to send him to jail.)
- 7th Heaven, The WB, "Twelve Angry People", 2000 (the jury foreman, Reverend Eric Camden, argues for an acquittal)
- All in the Family, "Edith's Jury Duty", 1971 (Edith as a lone dissenter in a murder trial)
- Andy Griffith Show, "Aunt Bee on the Jury," in which Aunt Bee is the lone dissenting juror who refuses to vote Guilty against a burglary suspect played by Jack Nicholson. Andy flushes out the real thief, right in the courtroom.
- Charmed,The WB, "Trial By Magic", 2002 (Phoebe must convince a jury that a man is innocent, despite overwhelming evidence against him.)
- Crossing Jordan, NBC, "Slam Dunk", 2004 (Jordan, as a juror, has her suspicions over an alleged cop-killer during his re-trial.)
- CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, "Eleven Angry Jurors", 2004
- Cupid, ABC, "Hung Jury", 1998
- The Dead Zone, USA Network, "Unreasonable Doubt", 2002
- The Dick Van Dyke Show, CBS, "One Angry Man", 1962
- Doogie Howser, M.D., ABC, "Eleven Angry People. ..and Vinnie", 1993
- Doordarshan (TV Movie), India, "Ek Ruka Hua Faisla", 1986, directed by Basu Chatterjee[1]
- Family Matters, ABC, "The Jury," 1996
- Hancock's Half Hour, BBC, "Twelve Angry Men", 1959
- Here's Lucy, CBS, "Lucy and Joan Rivers Do Jury Duty", 1973
- Hey Arnold!, Nickelodeon, "False Alarm", 1997
- Judge John Deed, BBC, "One Angry Man", 2006[2]
- King of the Hill, Fox, "Nine Pretty Darn Angry Men", 1998
- Matlock, ABC, "The Juror," 1993
- Malcolm in the Middle, Fox, "Jury Duty", 2002. (Lois consistently flips her opinion back and forth to keep the other jurors in the room to talk about the case.)
- Monk, USA Network, "Mr. Monk Gets Jury Duty", 2006
- My Wife and Kids, ABC, "Jury Duty", 2003 (Jay is the only woman on the jury. The rest of the men want to get it over with because of the 'Godfather' marathon that was to be shown later that day. Jay votes not guilty in the initial vote.)
- The Odd Couple, ABC, "The Jury Story", 1970
- Pepper Ann, ABC, "One Angry Woman", 2000 (Pepper Ann's mother has to decide whether or not a child should receive a strict community service sentence after he allegedly spat on a bank's camera. A notable similarity was the line 'I spit on you! I spit on you!' from said episode and the line from 12 Angry Men: "I'll kill him! I'll kill him!").
- The Simpsons, FOX, "The Boy Who Knew Too Much," 1994. When Homer is on the jury for a man who seems completely guilty, he purposely puts in the only "not guilty" vote so that he'll be sequestered at a nice hotel. As it turns out, he was right and the man really was innocent.
- The Tracy Morgan Show, NBC, "A Call to Duty", 2004
- Veronica Mars, UPN, "One Angry Veronica", 2005
- Yes Dear, CBS, "Mr. Fix It", 2001 (Christine drags out the case so she will not have to go home to her kids)
- In an episode of Happy Days, Fonzie employs his knowledge of motorcycles to prove that a man accused of stealing a woman's purse and escaping on a motorcycle was in fact innocent.
A parody entitled Twelve Angry Men was made starring Tony Hancock and Sidney James for Hancock's Half Hour. The lead juror (Hancock) protests the innocence of the defendant because he has 'such a nice face', and his impoverished companion (James) sides with him to keep the trial going, as they are being paid as long as the jury made no decision. This version ends with the jury themselves being tried for the supposed theft of a diamond ring used as evidence.
Theater
The screenplay has been published, and Rose wrote several stage adaptations of the story. In 1964 Leo Genn appeared in the play on the London stage. In other theatrical adaptations in which female actors are cast the play is retitled 12 Angry Jurors or 12 Angry Women.
In 2004, the Roundabout Theatre Company presented a Broadway production of the play, starring Boyd Gaines as a more combative Juror No. 8, with James Rebhorn (No. 4), Philip Bosco (No. 3), and Robert Prosky as the voice of the judge. In 2007, 12 Angry Men ran on a national theater tour with Richard Thomas and George Wendt starring as Jurors No. 8 and No. 1, respectively.
Other
The movie has been used in management seminars as a case study in team building and leadership. The resolution-of-conflict techniques presented in 12 Angry Men have been analyzed and applied to employee efforts to collaborate among themselves to handle issues. The goal is to minimize or eliminate the inefficient micromanagement by company executives in areas in which they are unskilled and/or unknowledgable. This use is most widely seen in the Total Quality Management system used by the U.S. government as well as numerous private sector corporations.
In a May 26, 1999 piece in the New York Times titled "Importance of Being Persuasive; Daimler-Chrysler Merger Made an Art of Making a Case" by Youssef M. Ibrahim, Jurgen E. Schrempp the ex-CEO of DaimlerChrysler who oversaw the merger of the two companies stated about the movie: 'It helps me put my arguments into words, focus on people'.
Characters
See also
Notes
- ^ "Ek Ruka Hua Faisla". IMDB. Retrieved 2007-04-16.
- ^ "Judge John Deed". BBC. Retrieved 2007-04-16.
References
- Making Movies, by Sidney Lumet. (c) 1995, ISBN 0-679-75660-4
- Phoebe C. Ellsworth. "Twelve Angry Men," Michigan Law Review, May 2003 v101 i6 p1387(21) (online at Infotrac), in depth analysis compared with research on actual jury behavior.
- The New York Times, April 15, 1957, "12 Angry Men", review by A. H. Weiler
- Readings on Twelve Angry Men, by Russ Munyan, Greenhaven Press, 2000, ISBN 0-7377-0313-X
External links
- 12 Angry Men at IMDb