12 Angry Men
3 Oscar Nominations·AFI #87·National Film Registry
Rent/Purchase
The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.
What critics thought
One of cinema's most unanimously celebrated films, 12 Angry Men turns a single jury room into an engine of almost unbearable tension — critics in 1957 competed mainly to describe how thoroughly it held them captive, not whether it did. The one recurring caveat was that the jurors' motivations are sketched in quickly and hammered home too often, but even those who noted it found the film's cumulative impact hard to argue with.
“It makes for taut, absorbing, and compelling drama that reaches far beyond the close confines of its jury room setting.”
A. H. Weiler·The New York Times
“Perhaps the motivations of each juror are introduced too quickly and are repeated too often [...] However, the film leaves a tremendous impact.”
Variety
“one of the best constructed and tautly written of the year....[Reginald Rose's] gift for reproducing the present day idiom adds to the validity of his 12 subjects as they struggle to reach common ground.”
Mae Tinee·Chicago Tribune
“a fairly substantial addition to the celluloid landscape”
John McCarten·The New Yorker
Genres
Crime, Drama
Cast & Crew
DirectorSidney Lumet
StarringMartin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman
ComposerKenyon Hopkins
12 Angry Men
3 Oscar Nominations·AFI #87·National Film Registry
The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.
What critics thought
One of cinema's most unanimously celebrated films, 12 Angry Men turns a single jury room into an engine of almost unbearable tension — critics in 1957 competed mainly to describe how thoroughly it held them captive, not whether it did. The one recurring caveat was that the jurors' motivations are sketched in quickly and hammered home too often, but even those who noted it found the film's cumulative impact hard to argue with.
“It makes for taut, absorbing, and compelling drama that reaches far beyond the close confines of its jury room setting.”
A. H. Weiler·The New York Times
“Perhaps the motivations of each juror are introduced too quickly and are repeated too often [...] However, the film leaves a tremendous impact.”
Variety
“one of the best constructed and tautly written of the year....[Reginald Rose's] gift for reproducing the present day idiom adds to the validity of his 12 subjects as they struggle to reach common ground.”
Mae Tinee·Chicago Tribune
“a fairly substantial addition to the celluloid landscape”
John McCarten·The New Yorker
Genres
Crime, Drama
Cast & Crew
DirectorSidney Lumet
StarringMartin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman
ComposerKenyon Hopkins
Rent/Purchase