Response to Twelve Angry Men
11-4-2013
Twelve Angry Men
Twelve angry men is a movie which takes place in a New York jury chamber on one of the hottest days in the year during the deliberation faze. Juror #8 (Henry Fonda) is the only juror out of the twelve who believes that the case they are deciding on should not be open and shut he wants to talk and point out facts of the case. The twelve men in the case must decide on this young boy’s fate, who is on trial for the murder of his father. This film presents the themes of justice, independence, ignorance, many concepts of conformity, anger, displacement, and stereotypes are used in the struggle to reach a verdict. This movie shows the “imperfections” in the American Jury System it delivers the message that it does not matter quantity when it comes to opinions, but the quality of them. Juror # 8 was an example of that in the movie by dedication, curiosity, and with the pursuit of the truth he is able to persuade a group of twelve men to second guess even themselves, and manages to convince the eleven jurors that the case is not as obviously clear as it seemed in court. The film reveals a lot of critical aspects of justice, and illustrates how the American court system protects individual’s rights through objective laws, but at the same time glorifies heroic individualism through juror # 8. Throughout the movie he stresses the idea of “reasonable doubt” and slowly chips away at the other jurors, as more and more reasonable facts come up.
Within this group there are a dozen different personalities some of which were leaders and most of which were not. These range from a racist to a father estranged from his own son and even to an ordinary Joe who happens to have tickets to the ballgame in Madison Square Garden. From there a lot of debate and many arguments happens just like the jury I served on last year in 2012. The case was a sad one and some of the other jurors were so cold –hearted. I