The plot follows twelve jury members as they decide the fate of a boy's life. The boy is 18, lived all of his life in a slum, is what looks to be Jewish or Italian (aka, black in the 50's), and is being accused of murdering his father. We only get a short glimpse of the boy before the jury is sent off into their room to make the decision of whether or not this boy will be sent to the chair.
As the jury members walk into the room, the audience can tell they're not taking this case seriously. They're talking about business, or sports, or how fortunate they are to have something as interesting as a murder case and how fast it'll be over. The boy is no good, and it's clear to everyone that he's guilty. Everyone except one man. The man who thinks he's not guilty, at first doesn't even say as much. He just wasn't completely positive that he was guilty, and more than anything wanted to respect the fact that a life was hanging in the balance by having a conversation about it. So begins a very long conversation wherein, either through discussing possible flaws in the evidence against the boy or through recognizing that the case wasn't as clear as it first seemed, the other members of the jury slowly began to question their initial judgements.
This movie is just a long conversation. There is only one room we see, with exceptions to very short scenes in the court room and the bathroom. There is also a fixed cast, we don't meet any new people, and the people we do know don't go anywhere. It may all sound quite dull on the surface... but I challenge you to not be riveted. The room is so emotionally charged, with real emotion too. The acting is really phenomenal, and I don't think it can be compared to present day acting that needs special lighting, special effects, special music to set the mood of a scene. I don't even remember if this film has a soundtrack... but knowing older film, there are probably more than a few scenes without a musical backdrop to tell the audience what they should be feeling. The actors just take you there.
The individual characters are all very interesting as well. Because it's just a movie about talking and because we stuck with the same people in the same place, you can really get a sense of where they're coming from and what makes them tick. How they interact with the case and the evidence, how they interact with the other jury members, the ideas they bring to the table. It all creates a small picture of what that character's life must have been like before they walked through that door, and why they're thinking what they are about the boy on trial, some positively and some negatively.
On a slightly tangential side note, they did an episode in honour of this movie in the cartoon Pepper Ann (I might be placing myself on the timeline here), except it is obviously not for murder.
Anyway, amazing film that you must definitely watch before you die. Yes there is a colour version done in the 90's. No it is not better. Watch this one.
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