One of the best movies ever made, imo.

A+

Almost perfect. Great script and performances from everyone involved. It's amazing how gripping a conversation in a room for an hour and a half can be. My grade: A.

Easily one of my favorite movies from before 1970. It's amazing how well it's constructed.

Grade: A

It seems as you grow older, you can appreciate older films more. That does not mean that when I hit the age of 65 I will appreciate a film like Citizen Kane, but now that I am in my late 20's I have a desire to see some of the greats from years past. Just five years ago I was too narrow minded to want to even try to appreciate older cinema and some of the screen greats. But today I rented the 1957 classic, 12 ANGRY MEN and was not only pleasantly surprised, but I truly liked it and thought it to be quite a good film.

What's quite fascinating is to see the change in political and social climates since the days of black and white film. In this film, there were no black jury members, no women, and no swearing. This was also, to be fair, probably the worst handled case in the history of trials next to the Warren Report. Questions that today would be common place were avoided like the plague. Evidence was not handled properly, very little effort was put forth by the defense to come up with a defense at all and witnesses were never thoroughly interrogated or cross examined to refute what can only be regarded as flimsy testimony. But, not only was I not around in the 50's, I have no idea what the North American justice system was like back then, and perhaps that is what makes this film so interesting. So I can only say that it is possible that a case could be handled this poorly, given its circumstances. You would have to compare and dissect what society was like back then to get a true appreciation of what was and wasn't possible.

To talk about the film, yes it was very enjoyable. It was a great film that unwound piece by piece all of the apparent infallible theories that pointed to the guilt of this kid. The writer should be given a lot of credit for that. But having said that, a film like this would never see the light of day with today's fickle audience that would rather see a film like Con Air than High Fidelity. I am not critisizing today's audience for that, just pointing it out. But the 40's and 50's were different. Spielberg and Lucas and Don Simpson and Joel Silver were just little tykes then. It was a different time. A film that only talks and has no action was perhaps a possible sell back then with a cast like this. Lee J. Cobb and Henry Fonda and Jack Warden must have been at the height of their popularity so that immediately leant credence and respect to the project. But it wouldn't matter who did this film in today's age, it would not work. Again, not a critisism, just an opinion.

I think it is important to go back to the roots of cinema every once in a while to view some of it. You come across gems like this and you learn to appreciate them. 12 ANGRY MEN is a fascinating film and it is one that serious lovers of film should watch every now and again to feel the aesthetic of film before special effects started to replace a good script and a good director. Tarantino would appreciate something like this. In his version of 12 ANGRY MEN, the 12 jurors would probably have names of colours and at the end they would all have grabbed Henry Fonda's knife and tried to kill each while uttering the F-Word in, but a film that prides itself on dialogue more than action is what he is all about. This could be a pioneer of a Tarantino film project.

12 ANGRY MEN is a great film and it is one that HENRY FONDA should have been proud of. A wonderful experience! And it is great to see some of his work, other than On GOLDEN POND.

9 out of 10

At age 34, baumer has finally reached his late 20s. Either that or he's too lazy to write a new review.

I give this one an A, too.

Too lazy to write a new review.

Check out Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West, the best western I have ever seen and my 2nd favorite movie of all time.

Yep, I own that film. Loved him in it.

I've only seen this film once, but I got the VERY strong impression that this film was not about the court case at all. It's about the emotional baggage of the jurors. As Fonda unwinds the pieces of evidence against the defendent, he finds out that the jurors voted "guilty" because of their own pre-conceived notions and prejudices, not on the evidence at hand. Over the course of the deliberations, the jurors face their personal demons. Once he admits to his own failings, one by one each juror comes around and bases his vote on the evidence -- that is, not guilty. Lee J Cobb is the last holdout because he has the deepest demon.

They still make this kind of film -- heck, The Breakfast Club is a modernized version of 12 Angry Men. But it's tough to find an audience for this. It makes the audience feel uncomfortable. Who wants to be reminded how perfect we aren't?

this film is a classic. Countless tv shows have remaked this movie and storyline is just perfect to create a new film. Even the 1997 remake was quite good.

A

I really loved it as it is an escape from movies today which practically need violence, sex and swearing to be interesting.

Simply astounding. It's incredible that basically just a one-scene movie could be so gripping and involving, but the fantastic script and terrific acting make it so. I'm glad they didn't show a re-enactment of the crime, or definitively say whether the kid was innocent or not, as the film's not really about the crime at all. It could be the best character study ever told, even though we know none of the character's names until the end (and then only two of them) nor what they're like outside of the jury room. The only weak spot I found among the ensemble was Juror #2, I just found him incredibly irritating and was surprised the other jurors - especially #3 - didn't rage at him at all. It's kinda idealistic, but still one of the greatest films ever.

A

Wow. Overly moralistic by today's standards, and it also points out/explains things that we now realize audiences can infer, but still, it is timeless. I can't believe I had never seen this before....I just loved it so much! Thank god for Netflix Watch Now...or else I probably would've never seen this.

A+
Possibly already in my all-time top 10.

Okay, this is excellent.

A

As tight as a snare drum.

A+

It really is impossible for anyone to not love this movie. They should do tests to see how inanely universal the movie is, show it to some 12 year old girls and then some 15 year old skater skids and then anyone else... every one of them would probably still love it. And for good reason.

A

That's true. I've never known anyone not to acknowledge that 12 Angry Men is a great, great film.

To its detriment, it doesn't dabble in much ambiguity, but goddamn is it tense and engrossing. It's like the best Stanley Kramer movie Stanley Kramer never made.

Recommended this film to all my friends and my family.


Everyone of them loved it, and i think your right, you can not dislike this film.

Really watching this film and Alfred Hitchcock's films have really changed my views on movies. Also, by recommending these films i have changed many others view on films.

However maybe Magnus could become the first...

WOW!!!


Today at my UNI in our management class we watched this film with 500 other young kids (17-23) like me.
Some have had seen the film before, but many did not hear about it.

Well, the class loved it, and I was so happy when people where cheering and laughing and saying "burn" all throughout the film. No one hardly left, people were glued in at the best parts of the film. My friends all said "this film's old, buts its sick!." Which means its great. People were laughing at quite a few scenes and I sort of realized the film has some rather humorous parts in it. The class cheered when Henry Fonda was literally burning everyone. The class enjoyed it and about 1/3 of the class actually started clapping at the end. The Prof was rather beaming with happiness at the response to the film.

I heard no negative comments, just great review and the Prof says we will take about the film next week. Some guy yelled "man, If I commit a crime, I want Henry Fonda on my Jury".


I was rather happy to see this and just shows how special the film is. A 50 year old with no violence, guns, sex, boobs, fighting or swearing was able to keep the attention of 500 young adults.

I think that is remarkable.

One of the best films ever made, simple as that.

A+

B+



Well, this was one of the "biggies" I had to see and finally I have done so. I think, sadly, my appreciation of this film can't be unbiased because just some days ago I have seen the Russian remake of it - the Oscar-nominated 12 - and for me, 12 Angry Men just pales a bit in comparison. I'm sure I'm one of the very few to think so, but I thought that 12 had what 12 Angry Men lacked to be excellent - the depth of characters. Only two of the 12 jurors get some depth here, Juror #3 and Juror #8 obviously. The remake which lasts about an hour longer gives room for pretty much all of the jurors to develop better ands thus seem more human to the viewer.

That said, it was a well-done, taught drama that is pretty gripping from start to finish (once again, I was a bit "damaged" here by having seen the remake before, I'm sure the tension would have been even more effective otherwise). Henry Fonda delivers a very solid leading performance, but it's Lee J. Cobb who turns in the movie's most admirable performance. The screenplay is very good here and despite the entire movie being confined to these 12 characters locked in one room, it never gets tiring or boring as you just keep getting more and more invested in their discussions. As I have said, though what lacked for me here was the depth of the characters and thus somewhat the train of thought that sometimes led them to changing their opinions.

It was still a pretty good courtroom thriller (I'm usually not too big on those) with a pretty good cast, a great screenplay and a competent director at the helm.

B+ for 12 angry men and A for 12, this damn piece of shit from a guy who's in love with his own mustache??? Unspeakable! That doesn't make any sense! I demand satisfaction! Strelyaemsya na rassvete!

Ya prinesu bazuku

Nothing I can change about the way I feel about them. Maybe I should have seen them in the reversed order, who knows...

Mne pofig - u menya yaderniy chemodanchik doma. You shouldn't have seen the remake at all - Mikhalkov tricked you, oh damn, he tricked almost everybody, but not me.

I smell a conspiracy...