Blue Void & Bondo12 Angry Men
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Written by Reginald Rose
I want to first say that at the very end the disc started to freak out on me. Only like the last 5 minutes, and I think I got the good gist of what went down, but I thought that should be known. Okay, so the film. I loved it. There, I said it, and I don't care who knows it. It was simple, stark, and thought provoking stuff. There was nothing really fancy about the technical aspects of it apart from some nice close-ups. It was basically all set in the jury room and consisted of the "12 angry men" having it out about a murder case. It was quite tense and unbelievably well paced. It seemed like an open and shut case, even I thought that, but then good ol' boy Fonda has to say no, let's think about this a minute first, and a whole 96 minute movie comes out of it. Smart man that Fonda.
The arguments are all real and plausible. The evidence shows up slowly but surely to the viewer and the arguments are made by the jurors. I loved the way that Fonda's character thought. It is a true service to the democratic system. They were ordered to find a unanimous decision beyond a reasonable doubt and he had doubts. A couple neat things I noticed were at the beginning the general disdain for the service these men had to perform. I mean the judge reading them their orders seemed so disinterested in the whole thing, and the man just wanting to get to his ballgame and see the Yanks play Cleveland. It amazes me sometimes how people can take jury duty so lightly. I understand somethings can be boring and jury duty can take away from work or whatever, but it is not only a civic duty, but a privilege. I honestly look forward to the day when I can serve on a jury (I couldn't the only time I was summoned because of being in Cincy for school). The other thing I noticed was that wry little smile that Fonda had whenever he made a good point and made the jurors think about it and sometimes change their votes. I couldn't quite read it. I almost think that he was trying to manipulate the jury for some reason, though that obviously never comes out. Either that or he has some strange fixation with being taken seriously or being smart or something. Like I said, I couldn't read it.
At the end of the film I was thoroughly satisfied with about everything about it. Like I said, it isn't really flashy and it doesn't have to be. It survives on a great story, but an even better way of telling it. Lumet works that jury room like a pro and puts the audience right in there with them: with the tremendous heat, the downpour rain, and the loud shouting matches over an 18 year old kid's life. I can definitely see why this might be Blue Void and Bondo's favorite film as it is mighty excellent. I can also see myself getting tremendous enjoyment out of multiple rewatches of this in the future. Oh, and by the way, I think that jury room scene was pretty darn good. The others? Meh.
****Next Film: Magnolia