Movie #30: 12 Angry Men

Movie #: 30
Movie Title: 12 Angry Men
Year Released: 1957

Director: Sidney Lumet
Notable Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley, E. G. Marshall, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Joseph Sweeney, George Voskovec, Robert Webber

Short Description: A jury holdout attempts to prevent a miscarriage of justice by forcing his colleagues to reconsider the evidence. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: #87
IMDB.com: #6
Ranker.com: #59
Lifed.com: #17
Empire.com: #72
FilmCrave.com: #41
FlickChart.com: #52



Date Watched: 11/5/2016

Grade: 4 out of 5 (Excellent)

Rationale: What I've noticed while watching over 200 movies for this list is that character driven story telling focused around even just a couple of characters can be difficult. What 12 Angry Men does is nothing short of astounding. Each of the 12 jurors has their moment to shine over the length of the film as they take turns adding to the increasingly tense drama of murder trial deliberation. While none of the 12 jurors ends up as a complete character by the end, all 12 walk out of the room as far more complex and interesting characters than when they walked in.