Preview

12 Angry Men Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
927 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
12 Angry Men Analysis
12 Angry Men Analysis

12 Angry Men is a movie, directed by Sidney Lumet, about twelve jurors who are deliberating a murder trial. An 18 year old has been accused of murdering his father and the jury has retired to determine his fate. The jury performs a preliminary vote and the results came out to be eleven for guilty and one, the architect played by Henry Fonda, for not-guilty. The rest of the jury then begins to persuade the architect that the accused is actually guilty. Each member of the jury played a key role in the development of the group and the task at hand. The foreman played a major task role and was almost like a manager of the group. He didn’t have much to contribute to the discussion of the case, but he tried to maintain order, initiates the votes, and determine breaks and when to continue. The only thing he seemed to contribute other than that was his vote. The bank teller was a quiet intellectual person and played a maintenance and a task role. He spoke often but was often interrupted by the louder jurors. Physically he was one of the weaker characters, but he was very smart and made some very good arguments during the discussion. The third juror was the angry father and was a key task role and self-centered role. He was the average dad, back in the fifties, that was very short tempered and was the final holdout once everyone had changed their votes’ to not-guilty. He played a significant role for the opposing side to the architect and turned the entire discussion into a win or lose situation. The stockbroker was the rich wall street guy and played a self-centered role. He was rather quiet and, in regards to looking at the evidence, was just like the angry father. The stockbroker looked at the facts specifically and thought the accused was guilty, but didn’t yell at the other jurors when they changed their votes. The former gang member played a maintenance role and brought the criminal experience into the discussion. His

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    12 Angry Men: Overview

    • 1553 Words
    • 7 Pages

    2. The Twelve jurors are given the job, by the judge, of deciding whether a teenage boy is innocent or guilty of killing his father. They must separate the facts from the fancy and provide a verdict of guilty if there is no reasonable doubt to the claims, or non-guilty if there is reasonable doubt. The decision must be unanimous. The charge against the defendant is Murder in the first degree – premeditated homicide (death sentence).…

    • 1553 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Twelve Angry Men Analysis

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the movie twelve angry man, after the twelve jurors listened to the facts in the trail, the judge gives her instructions to them. The judge told them that the man could face the death penalty if he found guilty. The 12 man gather in a stifling hot room to have a concluding about the case. They start arguing and adding their own experience, culture, and understanding of people's motives as a way of reconsidering the facts. Although all the jurors had listened to the same stated facts and they were in the same situation, each one of them interprets the facts differently. This reflects the differences in people and the different ways that we view the same things.…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are only twelve main characters in the entire play whose names we never learn. Despite that fact, there is a large amount of character development and the reader is able to learn lots about each juror. Character development is necessary for a good story and Twelve Angry Men has lots of it. It is all through the jurors dialogue and how they each act. The protagonist, juror 8, and the antagonist, juror 3, are easily identifiable thanks to how they talk about the case and what they want to happen. Juror 10 is clearly a racist based on the way he talks about “them”. As you can see, their names are not necessary for good characters and a good play. All that is…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Eyewitness In 12 Angry Men

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The film 12 Angry Men is about a murder trial conducted in a courtroom. The judge gave the jury its final instruction telling them that a guilty verdict will result in a death sentence for the defendant, an 18-year-old boy who was accused of murdering his father using a knife! One juror had a personal connection with the case. He has not seen his son for more than two years. He claims that the young boy is guilty and that all young kids are criminals. The juror has bias towards the trial because he see his son in the young boy. Out of the twelve jurors, eleven jurors voted for conviction. Another juror states that he has doubts about the case and hopes to give the boy a favorable decision. The young boy had a hard life living in the slum. A third juror claims that each of the…

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The trial takes place on the ‘hottest day of the year’. This inevitable heat sets the stage for the aggression that arises in the most of the men hence the title ‘12 Angry Men’. Aggression can be described as any form of behavior that is intended to injure someone physically or psychologically. This suggest that aggression like any other behavior is provoked by many internal as well as external factors. Heat produces an uncomfortable arousal that may facilitate aggression. This is further defined in the revised frustration- aggression hypothesis (Dobbs et.al., 1939), which states that factors like heat contribute to the building up of negative feelings that produce aggression. Aggression can also be explained in terms of internal factors. The biological factors that contribute…

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    12 Angry Men Essay

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The movie "12 Angry Men" focuses on a jury's decision on a capital murder case. A 12-man jury is sent to begin decisions on the first-degree murder trial of an 18-year-old Latino accused of stabbing his father to death, where a guilty verdict means an automatic death sentence. The case appears to be open-and-shut: The defendant has a weak alibi; a knife he claimed to have lost is found at the murder scene; and several witnesses either heard screaming, saw the killing or the boy fleeing the scene. Eleven of the jurors immediately vote guilty; only Juror No. 8 (Mr. Davis) casts a not guilty vote. At first Mr. Davis' bases his vote more so for the sake of discussion after all, the jurors must believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty. As the movie unfolds, the story quickly becomes a study of the jurors' complex personalities and how they deal with argumentation within groups and critical thinking. This allows Mr. Davis to try and convince the other jury members that the defendant might not be guilty by using cooperative argumentation, claim, evidence, warrant, facts, etc.…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    These jurors want to end the trial fast and give the judge the most obvious verdict. Which is "Guilty." However, the #8 juror opposes to the so called obvious verdict, so the others get upset and angry. This also triggers their wanting to have a reasonable answer to their discomfort. They continously show disrespect to the #8 juror redirecting the attention to some jokes and games showing their disatisfaction till the first big point is made. And it goes on shifting one by one to the otherside. However, the #8 juror started it because he only wanted to hear more about the boy's life and his circumstances. But as the conversation went on the small points made by others helped him think of ways to prove the kid "not guilty." Thats what I think.…

    • 5854 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Analysis Of 12 Angry Men

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages

    For fans of courtroom dramas and crime television, these court case movies all revolve around the courtroom. Unlike the orderly process of a real courtroom, the stories are filled with drama, intrigue and corruption. Getting to the truth is seldom as straightforward as it appears within these hit movies.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The third juror is the most ardently outspoken about the 'guilt' of the teenager. As the play goes along it is revealed he has a personal connection with what has happened, he feels anger towards his own son, an anger which he has transferred onto the accused. A key moment for the third juror is when he finally changes his vote to ‘not guilty’ which is when he is reminded by the 8th juror “It’s not your boy. He’s somebody else’”, followed by juror stating “let him live”. Right up to this point, the third juror is committed to his ‘guilty’ vote. By juror 3 allowing his emotional baggage to enter the jury room with him it is clear that from the beginning of the play, his personal experience with his son were physiologically too powerful for him to be able to make the right verdict for the defendant.…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In chapter 13, the boys are faced with their first battle, and are exceedingly nervous. When they get the order originating from the corporal to take pills, they don’t hesitate to take them, for their superior officer has ordered it. The fact that Beah chooses to utilize the words ‘secretive smile’ illustrates consonance and adds significance, creating a negative or sly connotation. The soldier exploited the higher power of the corporal in order to induce the boys into taking drugs. The control of the drugs assists the boys in battle, making them ‘high’ and aiding them in the slaughter of others. The drug high causes the boys to become oblivious to the sins they are committing, instead focusing on the ebullition of destroying the enemy. Since…

    • 151 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    12 Angry Men

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The movie Twelve Angry Men begins with an eighteen year old boy from the ghetto who is on trial for the murder of his abusive father. A jury of twelve men is locked in the deliberation room to decide the fate of the young boy. All evidence is against the boy and a guilty verdict would send him to die in the electric chair. The judge informs the jurors that they are faced with a grave decision and that the court would not entertain any acts of mercy for the boy if found guilty. The mood is apparent at first when the majority of the men vote "guilty" and it almost seems as this man's fate is sealed. Juror #8 was the only man to vote for "not guilty".…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    12 Angry Men Essay

    • 346 Words
    • 2 Pages

    12 Angry Men illustrates the dangers of a justice system that relies on twelve individuals reaching a life-or-death decision. Discuss. 12 Angry Men, written by Reginald Rose, follows 12 members of a jury that must decide whether an inner-city teen is guilty of premeditated murder. If the jurors and the court rule the teen guilty, it would mean the death of the accused.…

    • 346 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    12 Angry Men Intuitions

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the movie, 12 Angry Men, a lesson that is taught is to check your intuitions-neither dismiss them, nor trust them blindly. In the movie, 11 of the jurors went with their first intuition that the boy was guilty. This turned out to be wrong in the end (as far as we know) and the jurors made the mistake of trusting their intuitions "blindly". Another example is the man who kept changing his mind as to whether he thought the defendant was guilty or innocent. He could not decide whether to go with his intuition or to dismiss it. Intuitions can sometimes be trusted, but sometimes need to be dismissed. We need to check it often to determine whether it really is correct or not.…

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    12 Angry Men Analysis

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In analyzing 12 Angry Men the first theory that came to mind is the Universal Theory of Leadership. The theory is defined as the belief that certain personal characteristics and skills contribute to leadership effectiveness in many situations. This shows true with Juror #8. Juror #8 was the architect who emerged as a real effective leader. The architect showed self-confidence and assertiveness. He convinced the jury that once all thought the young man was guilty to believing he was innocent due to the lack of proof and questionable assumptions. He showed himself as respectable, knowledgeable, and authentic. The architect rose question as to whether or not the circumstances could be possible by re-enacting the situation. He challenged the process completely by doing this. He was also a leader of integrity because he was loyal to rational principles, practiced what he preached, and did this regardless of the social pressure from fellow jurors’. With these characteristic traits the architect proves to be an charismatic and effective leader.…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Twelve angry men is a 1957 American Film that originated from a play of Reginald Rose and has been directed to a film by Sidney Lumet. The movie is not just about the outcome of the trial of a Puerto Rican youth who has been accused of murdering his father, but also shows how the beliefs and attitudes of the twelve jurors lead to his acquittal. Aside from that, this movie also shows Leadership traits that can help every individual on developing their leadership capabilities. The story started when the twelve jurors were put together in a sweltering deliberation room somewhere in America where they have been asked for their verdicts whether to put the child on chair or not. Eleven of them unanimously voted that the youth is guilty and must be…

    • 225 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays

Related Topics