12 Angry Men

Probably almost always misidentified as a courtroom drama, it is, in fact, a jury room drama, unique in cinema. Twelve men enter a jury room to decide the fate of an 18 year old young man on trial for murdering his father. Eleven are ready to vote guilty and send him to be executed. One wants to talk about it before making such a monumental decision. Through gentle persuasion, "soft soap" in the words of another juror, that one man brings the rest of the jury around to his way of thinking, not absolute assurance of innocence, but just reasonable doubt. In a taut 90 minutes we learn the motivations and prejudices of each of the twelve men. No one is a hero and no one is a villain. each is a human being who is ultimately able to listen and come to his own conclusions. One-scene films don't often succeed, but this one is brilliant. A must-see.

So good that I want to re-watch it from many years ago.

The movie was in black and white. The scene didn’t move from 12 men talking in an old court room and our attention was locked in the same room. Was it the plot, the acting, the flow of the story, the dialogue, nonetheless, it’s a great movie.

As I said before, gotta love the classics! Riveting scriptwriting, acting and camera work, and the point of the film still needs to be made. (There are of course those moments of overt theatricality that would not happen during an actual jury deliberation, and some "stunts" that would probably not even be allowed. Both are easily ignored as the drama of the film unfolds.) One could say, as they do in the special features, that this seemingly actionless story of twelve men in one room is one of the great thrillers of all time.

Always a brilliant watch. This should be required viewing for everyone. Then maybe we'd all be a lot nicer to each other, because now we understand the root of the anger. Racism and intolerance, you lose!

I had heard about this film for a long time. It is highly regarded and is an older, non-action or fantasy movie with a whopping 8.9 score on IMDB. And man, it deserves all the hype. I was riveted by the fine acting, intelligent story, and subtle camerawork. I don't usually like court room dramas very much, but this one is amazing, avoiding most of the usual cliches.

Has definitely stood the test of time. Great acting by a group of the most talented actors and whoever wrote that script was brilliant.

One of the great dramas combined with an all star cast. I loved it as a 10 year old watching at my uncle's house with all my cousins and I love it today, 55 years later.

I can remember my 7th grade teacher showing this to my class in Street Law (Civics, basically). We were discussing being on the jury and how court proceedings go, and this movie was one of the films we watched to be able to see it. I genuinely loved it, despite being twelve years old and finding these old movies boring most of the time.

So, thank you, Mr. Centafonti. It's been 16 years since that class, and I still remember it.

One of the greatest films I have ever seen. Since both sides of the argument are identifiable with, and are so simple and timeless, that they still hold up. I cannot express how good this film is with words; you need to see it to believe it. And I'm a Millennial!