12 Very Angry Men

I won't be complaining about this film Andy you will be glad to hear!

This film is set around 12 jurors sent to deliberate the decision on wether or not to send an 18 year old kid to death over the murder of his father. What seems like a very one sided open and shut case soon turns into a full scale fight between rival opinions.

I found last fridays film '12 Angry Men' a very intelligent perfectly pieced together film I have seen in a long time. It was almost as if we were watching a stage play, but with-out having to go to the theatre and sit beside very old men.

The film centred around one locked room in a court on the surface sounds incredibly dull, I thought this when I first heard what the film was set around. I thought to myself, just how can anyone make a good interesting film set in the one small location? Impossible I thought to myself. I have never seen nor think I will see a film again that would dare to do this, any modern director would have us flashing back and forwards from the crime to the jury room to keep a pace to it.

All credit is due to the director on this account for not doing that, its not important for us seeing the actual crime, all we need to see and hear are these men deliberating over it. Again sounds very bland, but it never once got dull nor boring at any point I feel. It had me hooked from the get-go, the incredible acting combined with the stage design and camera set ups made this one film you're not going to forget in a hurry.

I felt the characters all had so much depth and character to them, each one felt like an individual with his own story. Again the acting had me pulled right into the movie, the protagonists of the jury were so good at what they did that I felt like bursting into the room and shaking them back and forth to knock some sense into them. They felt like real people is what I'm trying to say.

Henry Fonda's character in particular with E.G Marshall were the two most captivating jurors, the two intelligent men battling their views backwards and forth really did make this movie something special. They had me hooked so much that I was changing my opinion on what really happened much like the jury themselves.

I love how the table seemed to work like a game of duck duck goose, with each character getting up and having his say about the situation as one would move to the window and be removed from the equation so we can concentrate more on him. All very stage play-ish, but I feel it worked very well. It could have gotten very repetitive if this was given to the wrong person. The fact each character were all contrasting from the person they were sat beside kept it fresh and engaging.

The film had so many twists and turns sewn into the narrative which kept each minute new and engaging, I felt like a juror in the very same room, swinging my vote backwards and forth as the men were doing.

The stage design was excellent in every way, the way the bland room had so much life to it. It expanded and enclosed itself many times as the battle waged backwards and forth. I also felt like going for a cold shower after watching the film as I felt I had been in that very same humid sweaty room for hours on end. For a movie to actually grab me that much with my attention span has my extended praise.

Over all I feel this film is one I will be buying on DVD to own as I still feel I can watch it again and take something completely new from it, this movie can teach alot to modern films.