12 Angry Men

Welcome to real cinema, 12 Angry Men is one of the finest works in cinema making I have seen. I say so not because this is the most awesome movie I have seen (though it stands among the finest I have seen), but because it stands apart due to raw talent and work of art, the entire movie is completely character driven.

Everything takes places inside a single small and claustrophobic jury room, no background music during the entire movie. But yet Sydney Lumet's characters which make their appearance as distinct entities having widely different personality traits, prejudices and backgrounds, over the course of the movie evolve into a group of such tightly bound organs of the setup that will pull and glue you into its world. Each character is so different that an entire chapter can be devoted to describe each of them and yet they together add up to the complete symphony that is 12 Angry Men.

The story is about a 12 member jury who have to decide the fate of a boy who is accused of killing his father. The jury begins with a vote where 11 vote "guilty" and the only one (Henry Fonda) votes "not gulity" based on "reasonable doubt". The verdict has to be taken unanimously. What follows is a totally gripping discussions and collisions of prejudices and reason.

Reading Roger Ebert's review and watching for the second time I could notice the effect that the movement of the camera had on my emotions the first time I watched it. During the course of the movie, its sheer amazing how the camera places the characters as they evolve in the story and as to their personality aspects, and according to how the atmosphere in the room develops.

The movie was nominated for 3 oscars but apparently lost all of them to another great movie made in the same year "The bridge over the river Kwai" (reviewed earlier).