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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Salesrank: 2470
Released: March 4, 2008 |
| Our Price: $8.80 |
| Used Price: $7.64 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
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).
Description of 12 Angry Men (50th Anniversary Edition):
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 McCoy
12 Angry Men (50th Anniversary Edition) Reviews:
great study of group dynamics 
2009-12-20 - I bought this DVD to teach my students about group dynamics. The acting is brilliant and the storyline well written. The group development process is well depicted. The roles individual's played in a group was well demonstrated. 5 star quality material, wonderful for teaching. Why don't they make movies as powerful as this nowadays? Thanks Amazon for the quick delivery.
Don't watch it once... 
2009-12-18 - ...watch it again and again and again!
Fooled you - I give it five stars, I just felt the urge to be different like Henry Fonda.
Or is it that simple?
The strangest thing is that I have watched this film every time I could, and more-so since it's been on dvd, since I was seven years old. I loved it then and I love it now. Strange because at that early age my other favorite films were "Star Wars" and "Planet of the Apes".
There is something calming about this film, and in that calm a state conducive to understanding.
The actor's portrayals are specific without being two-dimensional. I grew up watching many of them in later films (not all as worthwhile or high-minded) and they all feel like lost uncles. "Twelve Angry Men" was truly the high-water mark for many of their careers as far as I'm concerned.
I find it not surprising at all that so many reviewers here say they can watch this over and over; it's that kind of film. There's a kind of peace and certainty in it. The only modern equivalent of such devotion I'm aware of is "The Shawshank Redemption", but I'll leave it to another review to work out why that should be so.
When I was twenty years old I found myself on a trial jury where the accused was a welfare mother indicted for bilking the system. She received next to no support from her court appointed attorney, just a stack of forms that supposedly indicated her innocence. The prosecution did little more than present a stack that supposedly indicated guilt. By the time the "defense" concluded their case my fellow eleven (and much older and crankier) jurors wanted to go home and were ready to vote guilty without a seconds deliberation.
To this day I don't know if she was truly guilty or not; what I do know is that at that time I was no Henry Fonda and I kept my opinions to myself and voted guilty with the rest of them. I still have trouble looking at myself in the mirror when I'm reminded of it, but I've vowed to never feel rushed by others and to adhere to Fonda's character's self-disciplined slow personal pacing - to stop and think, to shut out the opinions of others and form your own.
Perhaps the simplest lesson "Twelve Angry Men" offers is that courage comes before conviction (no pun intended) - the courage to stand up and question, the courage to stand and speak as an equal with others. This is in stark contrast to John Wayne's dictum of "Talk low, talk slow, don't say too much", as cowardly a lesson as his "Never apologise, it's a sign of weakness".
Good advice for the not-to-bright and weak I suppose, but Wayne's "Fort Apache" co-star Henry Fonda had some different wisdom, wisdom that speaks to the strength in our hearts here in this great film.
Though it was written at the height (or depth) of McCarthyism and mid-1950s cultural uniformity "Twelve Angry Men" still has something worth hearing today, where uniformity is merely camouflaged with candy hued colors, vacuous attitudes and LED lights and McCarthyism easily replaced by "patriotic" holier-than-thou screeching among certain sects of the American socio-political scene. The film speaks to the need for individuals to look inward and digest input, not simply react.
Today, with all types of electronic devices designed to be plugged into one's skull from iPods to Bluetooths, I don't see how anyone has the time to listen to themselves think.
"Twelve Angry Men" may very well have no audience now, at least not one that may easily glean anything worthwhile from it, and I suppose youngsters will find it impossible to sit through as relatively quiet and sedate a film as this, but I hope they'll be given a chance and not simply leave it's rich story, sincere morality and manly example to the memory of the soon to be middle-aged generation to which I belong.
I hope the lessons it has to offer need not be learned by trial (pun intended) and error as was the case with me.
Great Movie - A Classic!
2009-12-16 - I got this as a Christmas present for my boyfriend. He loves this movie, we have it on VHS & he wanted it on DVD as well. I got him the 50th Anniversary edition, it has special stuff...I'm sure he'll love it.
12 Angry Men Review
2009-12-13 - Must see movie, Henry Fonda plays great part as the only "thinker" in a group of men trying to decide if a young man should be convicted of murder. Makes you think. Classic.
Never get tired of watching it.
2009-11-27 - I used to teach 12 Angry Men to seventh graders. At first, they were put off by the lack of action and it being black and white. But, the movie never failed to engage them. No reasonable doubt here, it is a great film.
