12 Angry Men

In the ocean of motion pictures, if you could find a Marina Trench, it would be Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men. In the mountain of movies, if you could find an Everest, it most definitely would be Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men! Not only it's the greatest courtroom drama ever made, it's also one of the highest order visual books on how to craft a film from cradle to grave!

Set in a 4-walled room, the fate of an 18 year old boy from the slums who allegedly killed his father is summoned to the hands of 12 jury members. One word from them will send him to the chair! A prologue announcement from a judge sets up the premise and stakes right away, smoothly and swiftly!

Preliminary vote as the method to show us the story's starting point was astute, as we could foresee a completely opposite ending coming up! First it's 11 to 1 not guilty, and then the rumbling started! The way Henry Fonda's character gradually pulled one by one to his side by revalidating facts and casting doubts in analysing this rather simple case from scratch on humanitarian, reasonable doubt, plausibility plus logical grounds is the single most powerful silver screen watch ever!

Temperature and pressure literally rose corresponding to the heat between these personas! As these 12 distinct personalities with varying outlooks and perspectives rustled feathers with each other, explosion of content in terms of character and plot happened! We learnt about these men and what transpired in the murder file just by their arguments alone! No one who walked into this room exited the same! Personal prejudice, racism, classicism and misconceptions were freed! An arc has been completed for most of these men whom we don't even know the names of!

Boris Kaufman's camera employed mostly long unbroken takes to capture events happening in the chamber on real time. Each and every actor was performing all the way through whether they're in the shot or not! Closeups during point taken and self-realization moments easily conveyed the information to audiences! Editor Carl Lerner only cut when it's necessary. Music director Kenyon Hopkins only introduced a score when it's required.

Great dialogues and monologues is the staple of 12 Angry Men! You could quote every single line these characters mouthed! Personality based word choices and parallel conversations taking place audibly clear in the background suggested how minutely detailed Reginald Rose's writing was! The staging, performances, script and plot were also engraved in gold! Resting time infused into the plot as a way of massaging the pace and bringing up character moments via side interactions was clever! Lee J. Cobb, E. G. Marshall, Jack Warden and Ed Begley were outstanding!

Although each and every sequence is eternally memorable, knife-stabbing demo and refusal to listen by standing away from the table were beautiful scenes! Not only the feature's tragic, thrilling, tension-pumped and full of mystery, it's funny as well! What emotion did this motion picture not give us?!

12 Angry Men is a smart, sharp, dangerous, dashing, brilliant, eloquent and timeless classic produced in God's heaven. Cinema truly doesn't get better than this!