12 Angry Men: The Review

TRANSCRIPT

​The judge looks checked out by the predictable repetition of judgement.  I’m not the audience, I’m the jury of this film’s effectiveness to engage me.
 
I like how the movie gets right into it.  The court concludes and hands power to the jury.  The movie is portraying that dynamic.  Is that interesting?  My friend thought so, that’s why it’s his favourite movie.
 
One long continuous roll single camera...irritating.  Like a fly.  An unblinking fly watching the characters introduce themselves casually, before serious business takes place.
 
The jury is full of regular people.  All white men.
 
Everyone wants to resume their lives, and a guilty verdict is truly convenient (given the look of the judge looking forward to the resumption of HIS life...
 
Everyone brings their baggage to the case as some slowly empathize with the accused.  Those that think the accused is guilty bring their baggage to the case to justify how the facts twist to the flow of conversation.
 
The temperature in the room is a factor; effecting their patience.
 
It’s Possible (doubt is the saviour to all) vs not Probable (certainty is the saviour to all).
 
Everyone in that courtroom from the judge to the jury wrote off this case, except one man.
 
No women.  I wonder how that dynamic would have changed the situation.
 
Everyone is a salesman.  12 angry salesmen. 
 
The testimony is the product.  The defence and the prosecution are trying to sell the jury a product: to improve the lawyer’s reputation. 
 
The jury must predict which investment will be chosen unanimously.
 
The jury wasn’t sequestered, they were allowed to conduct their own investigation.  The murder weapon was a delicate gamble of accepting facts. 
 
Starts to rain to perhaps break the heat of the room as if doubt itself controlled the weather.
 
I just noticed, the lone doubter is the most handsome.
 
The jury is now 6-6 and some of the guilty crowd just want to leave, so there’s an incentive to just swing the vote...to leave early.
 
Bravery is defined by the turbulent flow of uncertain underdogs.
 
Pride over truth.
 
Class of Bravado
 
The jury retains facts from the court that retreating within their fallible intuition.
 
Now the tables have turned...the underdogs have their day. 

I would have liked to see the desperation of a losing vote would have succinctly disected the protangonist to call his reasonable doubt into question; potentially hanging the jury.