12 Angry Men (1957)

User Rating:

8.9/10   

Director:

Sidney Lumet

Writers:

Reginald Rose (story)
Reginald Rose (screenplay)

Release Date:

29 July 1957 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Life Is In Their Hands -- Death Is On Their Minds!

Plot:

A dissenting juror in a murder trial slowly manages to convince the others that the case is not as obviously clear as it seemed in court.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Jury | Trial | Jury Room | Restroom

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 13 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Martin Balsam	...	Juror #1
John Fiedler	...	Juror #2
Lee J. Cobb	...	Juror #3
E.G. Marshall	...	Juror #4
Jack Klugman	...	Juror #5
Ed Binns	...	Juror #6 (as Edward Binns)
Jack Warden	...	Juror #7
Henry Fonda	...	Juror #8
Joseph Sweeney	...	Juror #9
Ed Begley	...	Juror #10
George Voskovec	...	Juror #11
Robert Webber	...	Juror #12
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Rudy Bond	...	Judge (uncredited)
James Kelly	...	Guard (uncredited)
Billy Nelson	...	Court Clerk (uncredited)
John Savoca	...	The Accused (uncredited)

Directed by
Sidney Lumet

Writing credits
Reginald Rose		(story)
Reginald Rose		(screenplay)

Produced by
Henry Fonda	....	producer
George Justin	....	associate producer
Reginald Rose	....	producer

Original Music by
Kenyon Hopkins

Cinematography by
Boris Kaufman		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Carl Lerner

Art Direction by
Robert Markel

Makeup Department
Herman Buchman	....	makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Don Kranze	....	assistant director (as Donald Kranze)

Sound Department
James A. Gleason	....	sound
Al Gramaglia	....	sound re-recording mixer (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Saul Midwall	....	camera operator

Music Department
Kenyon Hopkins	....	conductor

Other crew
Faith Hubley	....	script supervisor (as Faith Elliott)

Production Companies

• Orion-Nova Productions

Distributors

• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Japan (2001) (Japan) (DVD)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2003) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (USA) (laserdisc)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2001) (Germany) (DVD)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (DVD)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (VHS)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (video)
• Shochiku Select (1959) (Japan) (theatrical)
• United Artists (1957) (USA) (theatrical)
• Varus Video (Russia) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Solters & Digney  publicity

Also Known As:

Twelve Angry Men (USA) (alternative spelling)
Doce hombres en pugna (Argentina) (Venezuela) [es]
дБЕММЮДЖЮРЭ ПЮГЦМЕБЮММШУ ЛСФВХМ (Soviet Union: Russian title) [ru]
12 Homens e uma Sentença (Brazil) [pt]
12 edsvurna män (Sweden) [sv]
12 hombres en pugna (Mexico) [es]
12 hombres sin piedad (Spain) [es]
A tizenkét dühös ember (Hungary) [hu]
Die 12 Geschworenen (Austria) [de]
Die zwölf Geschworenen (West Germany) [de]
Doce hombres sin piedad (Spain) [es]
Douze hommes en colère (France) [fr]
Doze Homens e Uma Sentença (Brazil) [pt]
Doze Homens em Fúria (Portugal) [pt]
Dvanaest gnevnih ljudi (Serbia) [sr]
Dwunastu gniewnych ludzi (Poland) [pl]
La parola ai giurati (Italy) [it]
Oi 12 enorkoi (Greece) [el]
Tolv vrede mænd (Denmark) [da]
Valamiesten ratkaisu (Finland) [fi]

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

South Korea:12 | Brazil:Livre | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Finland:K-8 | Sweden:15 | UK:U | USA:Approved (certificate #18206) | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

New York, USA

Company:

Orion-Nova Productions

Trivia:

All but three minutes of the film was shot inside the bare and confining, sixteen by twenty-four foot "jury room".

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Juror #8 is imitating the old man going to the door, as he is completing the first leg of his walk the shadow of the camera following him is clearly visible on the floor by his feet.

Quotes:

[first lines]
[In a tedious manner, sounding bored and tired]
Judge: To continue, you've listened to a long and complex case: murder in the first degree. Premeditated murder is the most serious charge tried in our criminal courts . You've listened to the testimony, you've had the law read to you and interpreted as it applies in this case...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mork & Mindy: Twelve Angry Appliances (#3.12)" (1981)

No Dissonance

This film deserves to be on anyone's list of top films. My problem is that it is so perfect, so seamlessly polished, it is hard to appreciate the individual excellences.

The acting is top notch. I believe that monologue acting is quite a bit simpler than real reactive ensemble acting. Most of what we see today is monologues pretending to be conversations. But in this film, we have utter mastery of throwing emotions. Once the air becomes filled with human essence, it is hard to not get soaked ourselves as the camera moves through the thick atmosphere. Yes, there are slight differences in how each actor projects (Fonda internally, Balsam completely on his skin...) but the ensemble presents one vision to the audience.

The writing is snappy too. You can tell it was worked and worked and worried, going through several generations. It is easy to be mesmerized by this writing and acting, and miss the rare accomplishment of the camera-work. This camera is so fluid, you forget you are in one room. It moves from being a human observer, to being omniscient, to being a target. It is smart enough to seldom center on the element of most importance, so expands the field to all men.

This is very hard. Very hard, to make the camera human. So much easier to do what we see today -- acknowledge the machinery and jigger with it. Do we have a filmmaker today who could do this?

Ted's Evaluation -- 4 of 3: Every cineliterate person should experience this.