Twelve Angry Men - A Charming company!

I don't look favourably upon nostalgia; I believe its a waste of time to reminisce about the glories of past when present could be made more memorable by doing something worthwhile in that time. But there are times when I lose out on this resolve - thanks to black and white movies!

Yesterday night was one of those moments when a thing of past wowed me yet another time :)

I had watched "The Man from Earth" a month or so back based on a recommendation. The same source had recommended "Twelve Angry Men" as well. I decided to watch 1957 version y'day.

The plot - twelve jurors debating over what seems to be a sure-shot verdict in a case involving an 18 year old kid accused of stabbing his father and thus causing his death. All jurors except one had decided to pronounce the verdict of guilty. The movie , on the periphery, is about the efforts of this one juror in convincing the rest that it is not a sure-shot case as it seemed to be based on the court proceeding.

But - what the movie actually represented for me was a case study of twelve different characters with their various personalities, their beliefs, motivations and their insecurities that drives them to their decisions! The characters are set up beautifully with their reactions and emotions giving clues about their prejudices. The fact that it takes one man to point to others that they are letting their unquestioned beliefs in deciding about someone's life (not many realize what a huge responsibility that is) makes me question about all those assumptions that we have made and all those things that we have taken for granted that has let us to conclude this is how a life is to be led. Not only have we all accepted things considered as acceptable by society in general for ourselves but we do want others to follow the same yardstick, don't we? Maybe we do need Juror# 8 in our lives occasionally to view things differently!

Stepping away from the philosophical influence the movie had on me, the other thing I enjoyed immensely about the movie was the attention to details - whether it was about the depiction of the fact that humidity precedes a thunderstorm (the characters are shown sweating profusely) or Juror # 10 sharing his verdict of not guilty by the move of his head because he had been asked to shut up earlier.

From the reviews on internet, I can see this is a popular movie (now I know why). But if you have not got a chance to watch this movie yet, please do take some time out to relish the same!

Twelve Angry Men

PS - Cross posted as a FB note