essential video Sidney Lumet's directorial debut remains a tense,
atmospheric (though slightly manipulative and stagy) courtroom thriller, in
which the viewer never sees a trial and the only action is verbal. As he does
in his later corruption commentaries such as Serpico or Q & A, Lumet focuses
on the lonely one-man battles of a protagonist whose ethics alienate him from
the rest of jaded society. As the film opens, the seemingly open-and-shut
trial of a young Puerto Rican accused of murdering his father with a knife has
just concluded and the 12-man jury retires to their microscopic, sweltering
quarters to decide the verdict. When the votes are counted, 11 men rule
guilty, while one--played by Henry Fonda, again typecast as another liberal,
truth-seeking hero--doubts the obvious. Stressing the idea of "reasonable
doubt," Fonda slowly chips away at the jury, who represent a microcosm of
white, male society--exposing the prejudices and preconceptions that directly
influence the other jurors' snap judgments. The tight script by Reginald Rose
(based on his own teleplay) presents each juror vividly using detailed
soliloquies, all which are expertly performed by the film's flawless cast.
Still, it's Lumet's claustrophobic direction--all sweaty close-ups and cramped
compositions within a one-room setting--that really transforms this contrived
story into an explosive and compelling nail-biter. --Dave McCoyProduct
Description Eleven jurors are convinced that the defendant is guilty of
murder. The twelfth has no doubt of his innocence. How can this one man steer
the others toward the same conclusion? It's a case of seemingly overwhelming
evidence against a teenager accused of killing his father in "one of the best
pictures ever made" (The Hollywood Reporter).