ARTS & CULTURE
Monday, February 23, 2015 15
12 Angry Men
The Demonstration of a Democratic, Just Society
and an Exceptional Film
justin philpott › contributor
12
angry men (1957) opens in a New
York courtroom at the conclusion of a
murder trial. The judge instructs the
jury that returning a guilty verdict will
lead to the automatic death sentence of the defendant.
With the exception of a few minutes at the beginning and end, the entire film takes place within a sixteen by twenty-four foot jury room. No names are
given to any of the jurors; they are referred to only
by juror number. This is symbolic of how the twelve
jurors are strangers and are likely to remain strangers after a verdict is reached. These twelve strangers
will decide upon the life and death of another human
being, an eighteen-year-old Hispanic boy accused of
murdering his father. For all intents and purposes,
they are the law. The film’s tagline says it best: “Life
is in their hands, death is on their minds.” From the
start, it does not look good for the young defendant.
One of the jurors even remarks how he wants to get
out early because he has baseball tickets. The jurors
take a customary opening vote and it is revealed that
only juror #8 (Henry Fonda) believes the boy is not
guilty. In voting not guilty, juror #8 says, “Well, there
were eleven votes for guilty. It’s not easy to raise my
hand and send a boy off to die without talking about
it first.”
The film invites you to be a fly on the wall as this
group of twelve men, with twelve different backgrounds and personalities, deliberate what