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[[File:12_angry_men_1301.jpg|thumb|400px|If the boy only knew what headaches he was about to cause...]]
'''''12 Angry Men''''' is a 1954 teleplay by Reginald Rose (and perhaps more famously, a 1957 film directed by [[Sidney Lumet]] and starring Henry Fonda and a veritable [[All-Star Cast]] of character actors) that concerns a supposedly straightforward murder trial. An eyewitness, forensic evidence, and the accused himself all seem to clearly point to an adolescent boy murdering his father. While most of the jurors want to pack it in and call it a day, one stands up and refuses to admit to the boy's guilt -- at least until they take a fine toothed comb through every shred of the evidence and make darn sure that they've got the right guy.
This work is best known as the film that [[Trope Codifier|popularized]] the [[Rogue Juror]] trope. Though it was not the first work to use it, it was the first to receive widespread critical acclaim. It's a classic of American cinema and recommended watching - if only because most of the other works on the Rogue Juror page reference it either directly or indirectly.
According to the American Film Institute, it's the second best courtroom drama movie in history, after ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]''{{'}}s film adaptation. In 1997 it was adapted yet again, this time as a [[Made for TV]] movie on [[Showtime]] starring Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott (the main difference in this version being the [[Cluster F-Bomb|level of cussing]]). There is also a 2007 Russian Adaptation by [[Nikita Mikhalkov]] called simply ''12''.
''12 Angry Men'' (the 1957 version) was added to the [[National Film Registry]] in 2007.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Artistic License: Law]]: Being convicted of first-degree murder does ''not'' result in an automatic death sentence. (This isn't [[Society Marches On]], though the length and likely outcome of the appeals process ''after'' a death sentence might indeed be very different today). Also, see [[Hollywood Law]] below. The entire case, in real life, would have ended in a mistrial the moment it came to light that #8 had bought the exact same type of knife as used in the murder.
* [[Asshole Victim]]: The murder victim was an abusive father.
* [[Berserk Button]]: Minor example with #6, who twice threatens violence (once explicitly, once by implication) over people showing disrespect to others.
* [[Character Filibuster]]: Juror #10 has a particularly nasty, racism-filled rant against "the likes of him [the accused]" [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|that causes the other jurors to turn away from him one by one, until #4 shuts him up]]:
{{quote|
'''Juror #4:''' I have. Now sit down and don't open your mouth again. }}
** The real kicker of the line is that #10 does exactly that - he doesn't say a word for the rest of the movie. When #8 asks him if he still thinks the boy is guilty, he simply shakes his head quietly.
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* [[Hollywood Law]]: While the Jurors do make the correct decision on reasonable doubt, the way they reach that position (by #8 wandering around the defendant's neighborhood conducting his own investigation) is major juror misconduct.
* [[Hypocritical Humor]]:
{{quote|
'''Juror #11:''' ''Doesn't'' even speak good English. }}
** To make it even funnier, Juror #11 is an immigrant to America from Europe.
* [[I'll Kill You
** [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|"You don't really mean you'll kill me, do you?"]]
* [[Implacable Man]]: Juror #4 is a purely intellectual version, a highly intelligent man who looks at the case with pure logic to defend his guilty vote rather than the more passionate and personal views of the others. He's also the only one who doesn't take his jacket off or loosen his tie in the hot room, claiming to never sweat. Subverted when he starts sweating when questioned about a movie he saw four days earlier.
* [[Ineffectual Death Threats]]
* [[Jerkass]]: Juror #7. He didn't care what the decision of the jury was, he only wanted to end early so he could go watch a game. At least the most vicious jurors voted guilty because they believed so.
* [[The Judge]]: Shown issuing instructions to the jury in the opening scene. Many stage productions (and the 1997 TV version) cast a woman in the role as a way of bringing at least some token gender diversity to the play without contradicting [[Exactly What It Says
* [[Karma Houdini]]: If the kid is guilty, then he gets away with killing his father.
** And if the kid is innocent, the real killer is still at large and unsuspected.
* [[The Lancer]]: Juror #9 acts as this, to some extent, to Juror #8.
* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: "You know, it's interesting he'd find a knife exactly like the one the boy bought!"
* [[Locked in
* [[Man in White]]: Juror #8
* [[Minimalism]]: Apart from a very short prologue and epilogue, the entire play/film takes place in the jury room (and an adjacent bathroom).
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* [[Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic]]: While there are plenty of impassioned speeches, the trope is less severe than most examples since the characters often stutter or pause at key points.
* [[Real Time]]: Fully in the play; broken briefly at the beginning and end of the film.
* [[Retroactive Recognition]]: Juror #5 will be instantly familiar to anyone who's seen an episode of ''[[Quincy, M.E.]]''. Jack Klugman even gets to do a Quincy-style deduction years before the series was conceived, by pointing out the inconsistent nature of the knife wound.
* [[Reverse Grip]]: An important plot point is how unlikely it is for any experienced knife fighter to use a switchblade this way.
* [[Rogue Juror]]: If not the [[Trope Maker]], definitely the [[Trope Codifier]].
** Unlike many examples, however, the [[Rogue Juror]] in this case isn't convinced of the defendant's guilt or innocence, at least initially; he simply wants the other jurors to take things seriously and not simply vote guilty -- thus sending a potentially innocent kid to the death chamber -- without making every effort to make sure he ''is'' guilty first.
* [[Second Hand Storytelling]]
* [[The Spock]]: Juror #4 (the stockbroker with wire rim glasses).
* [[Title
* [[Values Dissonance]]: At the time this was written in the '50s, women weren't allowed on juries in some parts of the country. These days, the script is often produced as ''Twelve Angry Jurors'' with a more diverse cast.
* [[Verbal Tic]]: Juror #10 seems to have one of these, you know what I mean? *sniff*
* [[Video Credits]]: Necessary, since none of the characters are named.
* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: When Juror #10 delivers his famous rant. "Listen... listen to me...."
** And Juror #3 shortly afterward. Made somewhat more poignant by the reactions of the other jurors; where they reacted to #10's breakdown with silent anger, they watch #3's meltdown with something closer to pity, as most of them
* [[Wham! Line]]: #8 has a wham ''action'' when he pulls out a switchblade identical to the murder weapon, but the best has to go to #9 when he points out the female witness had glasses marks on her nose, which renders her testimony useless (meaning she wasn't wearing her glasses at the time she saw the stabbing, meaning she wouldn't have been able to see the murderer correctly).
* [[What Happened to
** It should be noted that even though acquittal was the right decision, the way they got to it was partly wrong; for a juror to conduct his own investigations the way #8 did should have resulted in an immediate mistrial. However, since the knife was only one aspect of the reasonable doubt, and the other points were arrived at properly, the verdict was still correct.
* [[You Wouldn't Shoot Me]]: Juror #3 is asked to reenact the stabbing process on Juror #8. Given the tension between the two men, and #3's almost maniacal bloodthirstiness, there's a definite tension as to how "real" #3 will make the reenactment. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by the alarmed reactions of most of the other ten jurors as he draws back the knife.
{{reflist}}
{{AFI's 100 Years 100 Heroes and Villains}}
{{Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time}}
[[Category:Theatrical Productions]]
[[Category:Films of the 1950s]]
▲[[Category:Twelve Angry Men]]
[[Category:Film]]
[[Category:
[[Category:The Criterion Collection (LaserDisc)]]
[[Category:National Film Registry]]
[[Category:Trial film]]
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