12 Angry Men

Sidney Lumet, U.S., 1957; 96 min.

Boris Kaufman's first collaboration with Sidney Lumet, 12 Angry Men begins as the jurors in a murder trial move into a deliberation room to decide the defendant's fate. The prosecutor has made a strong case; the evidence is powerful, and the defense's counter-argument is weak. It seems like a quick deliberation, an open-and-shut case - until juror number eight (Henry Fonda) starts to question everyone's rush to judgement. He begins picking apart the evidence, sowing seeds of doubt among his fellow jurors. Co-starring a who's who of the late 50s New York theater - among them Lee J. Cobb, Jack Klugman, Jack Warden, E.J. Marshall, and Martin Balsam - 12 Angry Men remains a cinematic case study adaptation of a quintessentially theatrical situation. Kaufman's delicate lighting adjustments throughout ratchets up the dramatic tension.