12 Angry Men (1957) is one of those movies that shows us that strong acting and smart dialogue can make an entire movie run in one room without a dull moment!
There are movies that captivate you with effects and graphics, and there are other movies that captivate you with dialogue and performance only… 12 Angry Men is the second type. A very simple movie in its idea, almost all of which takes place inside a conference room, and yet, it is one of the greatest movies you can see.
The story in brief
12 men are sitting in a jury room, and they have a fateful decision to make: determine the fate of a young man accused of murder. If they vote him guilty, this boy will go to death, and if they say he is innocent, he will get a chance at life. At first, 11 people think he is guilty without thinking, but there is only one (Henry Fonda) who has doubts, and begins to turn the tables with words and logic, and one by one the discussions ignite, the tension increases, and we see how much people can be affected by personal biases instead of facts.
Honestly, the genius here is in the script and performance. The dialogue is written in a way that makes you glued to the screen, and every actor in the hall has a different personality, from the racist who can't stand the accused, to the one who doesn't want to waste his time, to the one who is afraid to express his opinion. The way the story develops and the convictions change before your eyes is a pleasure in itself.
Although the entire film is in one room, the camera moves in a way that makes you feel suffocated with the characters, and as the tension escalates, the corners get narrower and narrower, as if the room is getting smaller on them! Director Sidney Lumet used a clever method that makes you feel the psychological pressure that each one of them feels.
The transformations that happen to each character, how someone was a million percent sure of his opinion and suddenly starts to doubt, or how anger and pressure make people bring out the worst in them. The scene where one of the jurors turns the tables because of his racism was one of the most powerful and moving scenes.
This is not an action movie, there are no explosions or running, but the tension in it can make you hold yourself back from anxiety more than any movie you watch. If you like movies with strong dialogues, and put you in situations that force you to think, 12 Angry Men should be on your list.
