12 Angry Men - Film Analysis
BOURLIER Youri Université de Toulouse II – Le Mirail Master 1- IPEAT
Twelve Angry Men
(Sidney Lumet, 1957)
AN0E141X - Études filmiques du monde anglophone
Twelve angry men (1957), directed by Sidney Lumet, is its first feature film after several years of television production. Although his politics are somewhat left-leaning and he often treats socially relevant themes in his films (for example Serpico (1973), Dog day afternoon (1975), Network (1976), Prince of the City (1981)) he doesn 't want to and also can 't make political movies in the first place. It was originally conceived and mounted as a live television drama in 1954. Its format and length (fifty minutes total running time) were dictated by anti-equated television technology that did not allow for pre-broadcast filming.[1] At the urging of Henry Fonda, the television play was expanded by its author, Reginald Rose, into a film script that was then made into a movie and released in 1957. The film industry that produced Twelve Angry Men faced profound challenges. It had been under intense government scrutiny since at least 1949, when the so-called “Hollywood Ten” had been hauled before Congress and refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.[2] The industry’s reaction to this and other inquiries was a shameful effort to expel all those with prior communist associations from the movie business. Writers, directors, actors, and others with significant past ties to “red” organizations were placed on a blacklist enforced through the efforts of the major studios. Those on the list were denied all Hollywood employment. By contrast, those who cooperated in the government witch hunt by providing the names of individuals who had been involved with the Communist Party or other left-wing organizations during the 1930s and 1940s were exempted from the purge.[3] Some of the medium’s finest artists, including Academy Award-winning director Elia Kazan and gifted actor Lee J. Cobb
Twelve Angry Men
(Sidney Lumet, 1957)
AN0E141X - Études filmiques du monde anglophone
Twelve angry men (1957), directed by Sidney Lumet, is its first feature film after several years of television production. Although his politics are somewhat left-leaning and he often treats socially relevant themes in his films (for example Serpico (1973), Dog day afternoon (1975), Network (1976), Prince of the City (1981)) he doesn 't want to and also can 't make political movies in the first place. It was originally conceived and mounted as a live television drama in 1954. Its format and length (fifty minutes total running time) were dictated by anti-equated television technology that did not allow for pre-broadcast filming.[1] At the urging of Henry Fonda, the television play was expanded by its author, Reginald Rose, into a film script that was then made into a movie and released in 1957. The film industry that produced Twelve Angry Men faced profound challenges. It had been under intense government scrutiny since at least 1949, when the so-called “Hollywood Ten” had been hauled before Congress and refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee.[2] The industry’s reaction to this and other inquiries was a shameful effort to expel all those with prior communist associations from the movie business. Writers, directors, actors, and others with significant past ties to “red” organizations were placed on a blacklist enforced through the efforts of the major studios. Those on the list were denied all Hollywood employment. By contrast, those who cooperated in the government witch hunt by providing the names of individuals who had been involved with the Communist Party or other left-wing organizations during the 1930s and 1940s were exempted from the purge.[3] Some of the medium’s finest artists, including Academy Award-winning director Elia Kazan and gifted actor Lee J. Cobb
Bibliography: Bordwell David and Thompson Kristin, Film art: an Introduction, McGraw-Hill, 1997. Cook David, A History of Narrative Film, 2d ed., 1990. Cunningham Franck, Sidney Lumet 's Humanism, Literature/Film Quarterly, Vol.14, No.2, 1986. Landsman Stephan, Mad about 12 Angry Men, Chicago-Kent Law Review, 2007. Munyan Russ, Reginald Rose : A Biography, in Readings on Twelve Angry Men, Russ Munyan ed., 2000. [ 2 ]. Stephan Landsman, 2007 (p.2). [ 3 ]. Russ Munyan, Reginald Rose : A Biography, in Readings on Twelve Angry Men, Russ Munyan ed., 2000 (p.13-14). [ 4 ]. David Cook, A History of Narrative Film, 2d ed., 1990 (p.476). [ 5 ]. Frank Cunningham, Sidney Lumet 's Humanism, Literature/Film Quarterly, Vol.14, No.2, 1986 (p.1) [ 6 ] [ 7 ]. Franck Cunningham, 1986 (p.9)