A classic beyond reasonable doubt

***** 12 Angry Men (1957)

There are dozens of reviews, critiques, essays and journal articles published on 12 Angry Men that would render any praises I write superfluous. Here's a quick summary of the consensus: superb writing, brilliant performances and masterful direction by an American master. With that out of the way, I offer my paltry two cents...

I keep thinking about the premise of the film. It's deceptively simple - twelve men enter a room and argue over a crime. Eleven jurors are convinced the defendant committed murder; one juror is doubtful. I emphasize that last word because I originally wrote: "Eleven jurors are convinced a man committed murder; one juror is convinced he didn't." As great a tagline that would've been, it's a very, very misconstrued synopsis of the film.

Doubt is at the crux of the story. The one juror's (Henry Fonda) plea to the other men is not for them to share his convictions; rather, he asks them to be open to uncertainty. "I just want to talk," he states. "It's not easy to raise my hand and send a boy off to die without talking about it first." Drawing a line between certainty and doubt becomes all the more pressing when a young man's life hangs in the balance.

Whether the defendant is actually guilty or not, however, is besides the point. I made the mistake of assuming that at the end (spoiler alert), the twelve men prove the defendant didn't commit the crime. On the contrary, the jury doesn't really prove anything. Every bit of fact and evidence were still the same from beginning to end and nothing substantial had changed. What did change, however, were the men's perceptions - what they once deemed to be irrefutable evidence of guilt were re-examined in a different light and, in doing so, their motives and biases surfaced. As the margin for doubt grew wider, each juror was forced to confront his rationale for voting guilty/not guilty.

Who are we when we can no longer stand by our convictions? The film compels us to ask this question as we are made to identify with each character's struggle to acquiesce to the realm of uncertainty. Doubt is not an easy thing to stomach but is of supreme importance when we make decisions that render significant consequences. 12 Angry Men brilliantly reveals the nature of uncertainty and shows how very often our prejudices belie our perceived beliefs and convictions.