Late Lumet's 12 Angry Men

By Joseph Allencherril     4/14/11 7:00pm

Last Saturday, Sidney Lumet died at 86. Who knew that Sidney Lumet was alive all these years anyway? The name Sidney Lumet may not be as commonplace as other directors like Martin Scorsese or Spike Lee. Nevertheless, Lumet's films are as much a part of our film consciousness as any of theirs. Lumet's 43 films have garnered over 50 Oscar nominations in total. Some of his notable films include Serpico (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), The Verdict (1982) and his last film, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007); his first and probably most significant feature film, 12 Angry Men, was released in 1957. If you've never heard of the film, it is quite likely that you've at least seen some manifestation or reference to the film on television at some point.

Like many brilliant but under-appreciated films, Lumet's debut feature film 12 Angry Men met with little success at the box office, partly because Lumet shot a black-and-white film at a time when cinematic worlds of Technicolor were burgeoning. Fortunately, the film did have critical success, which goes to show that even critics aren't wrong all the time. In more recent years, 12 Angry Men has gathered a greater following, lending support to the dictum that the best films are not always popular at their release date but are timeless. Even then, it is rare that a director's debut feature has an impact with critics (though a few famous films do come to mind, such as Orson Welles' Citizen Kane or Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs).

The story of 12 Angry Men is derived from the play of the same name by Reginald Rose. A jury of 12 members retires to the jury room after hearing the closing arguments of a case involving a father's murder by a teenage slum boy. The decision to charge the defendant as guilty seems obvious to all the jurors. But in a preliminary vote, a lone juror — Juror Number Eight (Henry Fonda, The Grapes of Wrath) — stands up for the defendant's innocence. Of course, our American legal system requires that a jury reach a unanimous verdict, so what follows is a 90-minute study of human nature and law that should seem surprisingly fresh and relevant to the modern viewer.

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12 Angry Men is really a courtroom drama, and it is one of the first films to set a standard for the genre. What should strike even the least acute viewers is that all of the character's' actions and every word of important dialogue remain confined to one room — the jury deliberation room.

We do not even know the jurors' names until the end of the movie. Details like this are what make 12 Angry Men great; the film works without any special effects, without any visual tricks, even without color photography. Lumet had no need for these ornaments — instead, Lumet focused on bringing the development of his story and characters to the forefront; in this respect, Lumet is much like Elia Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire). In fact, if you were to take a look at his films collectively, you would notice that there really is no such thing as a "Lumet" look. Like a great craftsman, Lumet makes sure that his productions are seamless and invisible.

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