12 Angry Men

Essay by Quad2305A+, April 2004

download word file, 5 pages 4.7 3 reviews

Downloaded 212 times

In the movie "Twelve angry men" an eighteen year old is charged with the murder of his father. At first, all the jurors believe that he is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, except for one, who believes that they owe the boy more than five minutes in deciding if he lives or not. The man who does not believe that the boy is guilty explains his views to the rest of the jurors and is ridiculed by the rest of the jurors. An old man later sees where he is going with his reasoning and when the next vote is done, he also votes innocent. The jurors continue to discuss the case and bring up some important facts in favor of the teen-ager. Gradually, more and more jurors change their mind, and the ones that don't, get more and more outraged.

Juror eight, an architect played by Henry Fonda, has strong feelings towards the boys vote.

He is a calm and courageous man who fights to see that justice is to be carried out before deciding on it so quickly. He is the first to state that they should at least review the facts of the case before they send him off to die. He also points out some flaws in the old man's testimony, and proves that they cannot put all their trust in what the old man has to say. One of the last pieces of evidence that juror eight brings to attention is the way the boy's father was stabbed. He gets it into the other juror's minds that there is reasonable doubt, and saves the boy's life because he decides to review the facts of the case with the jury. Unlike juror eight, ten is an angry and is not fond of the boy,