LIFE IS IN THEIR HANDS - DEATH IS ON THEIR MINDS!

The defence and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case of murder soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other. Based on the play, all of the action takes place on the stage of the jury room.

Review by Bo Nicholson @ InFocus Movie Reviews

The ultimate courtroom drama; but with very little of it actually taking place in a courtroom, we are treated to 12 very different personalities in Sidney Lumet's masterpiece.
In what is a complete contrast to Luis Bunuel's 'The Exterminating Angel' (1962) - where guests at a dinner party cannot leave the room for reasons they can't work out, and the very core of their humanity and civilisation start to crumble- Lumet has treated us to a room full of people who are at first easily lead, racist, belligerent and cold....and one by one are persuaded, through the use of one man's logic, humanity and knowledge of the constitution, to vote not guilty.
Along the way they encounter the prejudices of others head on, which makes for some remarkably inspiring cinema. Consider the scene where Juror 10 starts on a racist rant (”Look, you know how these people lie, it’s born in them! ... They don’t know what the truth is!”) and, rather than engage him and give him satisfaction, each member of the jury stands and turns away from him. Wow! And this was the fifties! Sadly, this is still relevant.
Like many of the best films from the past, the writing here is perilously close to perfection; there are no car chases, no fist fights...just 12 men talking through a court case which will decide whether the 18 year old defendant lives or dies. Is he guilty or not? You know what, it doesn’t really matter anyway! This is about the value of human life, about understanding the consequences of a flippant opinion or stance, about the value of reasonable doubt. There isn't a wasted word here....*sigh*, they just don't make 'em like this anymore!
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