Amazon.com Essentials:
Sidney Lumet's directorial debut remains a tense, atmospheric
(though slightly manipulative and stagy) courtroom thriller, in which
the viewer never sees a trial and the only action is verbal. As he
does in his later corruption commentaries such as Serpico or Q & A, Lumet
focuses on the lonely one-man battles of a protagonist whose ethics
alienate him from the rest of jaded society. As the film opens, the
seemingly open-and-shut trial of a young Puerto Rican accused of
murdering his father with a knife has just concluded and the 12-man
jury retires to their microscopic, sweltering quarters to decide the
verdict. When the votes are counted, 11 men rule guilty, while
one--played by Henry Fonda, again typecast as another liberal,
truth-seeking hero--doubts the obvious. Stressing the idea of
"reasonable doubt," Fonda slowly chips away at the jury, who represent
a microcosm of white, male society--exposing the prejudices and
preconceptions that directly influence the other jurors' snap
judgments. The tight script by Reginald Rose (based on his own
teleplay) presents each juror vividly using detailed soliloquies, all
which are expertly performed by the film's flawless cast. Still, it's
Lumet's claustrophobic direction--all sweaty close-ups and cramped
compositions within a one-room setting--that really transforms this
contrived story into an explosive and compelling nail-biter. --Dave
McCoy
