"12 Angry Men" is voted one of the top 10 films on imdb. I saw this film at a workshop on Negotiation strategies many years ago. One helluva movie. Black and White but worth its reel in gold. Henry Fonda produced and acted in this 1957 movie directed by Sidney Lumet. Good to see the movie again with dad today- who likes movies with judicial largeness.
Its a wonderful story of how a jury has yet ...to decide on a first degree murder charge of a middle-aged man by his 18 year old son. Twelve men must decide, collectively and unanimously, whether the major son is guilty of the charge of murder or not. The jury is locked up in one room the entire duration of this exercise - it starts with 11 men saying "guilty" and one (Henry Fonda) saying "not guilty". And then the magic of negotiation begins with Henry Fonda disarming the rest of the jury with facts, cold facts, and dexterous reasoning and credible leadership skills. I got the film DVD through flipkart and unabashedly recommend it to connoisseurs of good cinema. Screenplay by Reginald Rose is fiery and clinical at the same time. It remains a riveting courtroom drama that you would ever see - a non pareil in that genre. Of course, Sidney Lumet, who is born into the performing arts went to give many other acclaimed movies - "Serpico", "Dog Day Afternoon", "Network" and "Ther Verdict" (as recently in 1982). Patrons of Art Cinema in Hindi would recall the same movie was the inspiration for the movie "Ek Ruka Hua Faisla".
Its a wonderful story of how a jury has yet ...to decide on a first degree murder charge of a middle-aged man by his 18 year old son. Twelve men must decide, collectively and unanimously, whether the major son is guilty of the charge of murder or not. The jury is locked up in one room the entire duration of this exercise - it starts with 11 men saying "guilty" and one (Henry Fonda) saying "not guilty". And then the magic of negotiation begins with Henry Fonda disarming the rest of the jury with facts, cold facts, and dexterous reasoning and credible leadership skills. I got the film DVD through flipkart and unabashedly recommend it to connoisseurs of good cinema. Screenplay by Reginald Rose is fiery and clinical at the same time. It remains a riveting courtroom drama that you would ever see - a non pareil in that genre. Of course, Sidney Lumet, who is born into the performing arts went to give many other acclaimed movies - "Serpico", "Dog Day Afternoon", "Network" and "Ther Verdict" (as recently in 1982). Patrons of Art Cinema in Hindi would recall the same movie was the inspiration for the movie "Ek Ruka Hua Faisla".
