12 Angry Men takes us into a jury deliberation, where the group weighs the facts, which leads to some surprising conversations.

While I love movies and spend a lot of time watching them, I still have some significant gaps in my movie knowledge. This was one of them. I have heard great things about this film for years, but I had never seen it. So, one Friday night, I sought to fix that problem.

I absolutely loved this film! Films like 12 Angry Men, that are mostly confined to one location, are absolutely fascinating to me. How do you utilize the one location in order to maximize the emotions the characters are feeling, while also providing enough visual interest that the audience doesn’t mentally check out? So much skill is required in creating a really great one-location film, and that’s exactly what this one does!

For the vast majority of the runtime, the jurors are in the jury room or in the adjoining restroom. And the film uses their confinement so strategically. The cinematography and camera angles do an excellent job of highlighting how stuck these jurors are, not just in their deliberations, but in their physical location. These men have other things to do that day, but they are unable to do them because of this responsibility.

It’s also an incredibly hot day, which is a genius move. We know that tempers are more likely to flare when we’re hot. There’s something about the sweltering heat that tends to bring out the ugliest sides of us. And we see glimpses of that throughout the film. The men are overheated and desire some sort of relief, but it’s in short supply. Everything happening on the screen is so visceral that you feel like you’re trapped in the room with them.

The longer the deliberations go on, the more that the camera zooms in on the men’s faces. We can see the sweat gracing their brow, dripping down their face, and staining their clothes, as they are weighing so many difficult factors. These close shots help steep us in their emotion, but also reinforce that sense of confinement that the film is playing with. Toward the end, this single room feels like a claustrophobic prison that these men want to get out of, but can’t seem to come to an agreement.

The setting and cinematography come together beautifully to create tension and highlight the immense emotional stakes.

Another aspect of 12 Angry Men that I absolutely loved is that this film is mostly just people talking. This is another type of film that can be incredibly difficult to do well. How do you make a group of people talking for an hour and a half have tension that builds and resolves? How can you make their conversations interesting, varied, and exciting? How do you keep an audience on the edge of their seats with just dialogue? And that’s exactly what this film manages to do.

Of course, the shifting dynamics of the group throughout the film are thrilling. When Juror No. 8 (Henry Fonda) initially pushes back against the rest of the group, it’s a tense moment. Each man wants to get out of this room and move on with his day, but can’t, because this one man has some questions. Throughout the runtime, things shift and change, with each person weighing the questions that are brought to the table.

The dialogue in this film is so interesting because each man present is incredibly different. Each one has a different temperament, background, and way of speaking. This, of course, leads to personality clashes between them. Juror No. 3 (Lee J. Cobb) is brash and loud, whereas Juror No. 4 (E.G. Marshall) is much more measured in his approach. Even when these two agree, they express themselves in very different ways. These differences help make the dialogue interesting. The fact that they’re seated next to each other also helps to highlight the distinct personalities of these two men.

The film is also smart to give each juror a moment to shine and express themselves. Sometimes, the film will take us into an aside between two or three characters as a way to break up the larger discussion that we had been following. These feel like moments of reprieve as we see a different part of the room and get to think about something other than this murder for a moment. But, as soon as that conversation is over, the men are back to their deliberation.

Throughout the film, the men take a number of votes to see where everyone stands. These are paced beautifully! Each vote also represents a change in the makeup of the group. We learn where people stand as minds are changed about who committed the crime, which means the ensuing conversation will be about something different. After each one of these breaks, a new piece of evidence is called into question, raising doubts about another part of the prosecution’s case. This variety helps keep us engaged and wondering not only what the truth of what happened, but what these men will do.

12 Angry Men is also intentional in not letting us hear the case from the lawyers. We come into the courtroom as the judge is giving the jury instructions for their deliberation. We don’t hear anything about the case other than what these twelve men remember. We are reliant upon their deliberation to form our own thoughts about the case. At first, it seems pretty convincing that the young man on trial did the crime, but as the film goes on, our own doubts begin to grow, mirroring the journey that many of the jurors go on.

12 Angry Men is absolutely brilliant! And the more that I think about it, the more impressed I am. This film features so many interesting characters who are pushed to their limits in this jury deliberation. And though all they do is talk, it’s thrilling from start to finish. We are weighing the information with them as we watch; we are also invested in the outcome of this deliberation.

This film came out in 1957, but it is still absolutely thrilling today. I was on the edge of my seat for every twist and turn in the conversation. I truly can’t wait to watch this film again!

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