To this point in the year, the oldest movie I have seen has been 1958’s The Blob, and I really didn’t think that outing was much of a prize. And not that 1958 is anything to sneeze at, but I felt that, you know, I could go a little older with my watching.

So I decided to go very little older and watch 1957’s 12 Angry Men. The fun thing about these Blast From The Past entries is that I am counting anything from pre-COVID (so basically anything prior to the 2020’s) as “the past” from which we can blast. Sometimes (rarely) we do flicks from the 2000’s and 2010’s, sure, but we also take the way back machine on occasion and reach back for a nearly 70 year old picture like this one.

12 Angry Men comes to us thanks to Tubi, which continues to have maybe my favorite selection of cinema available, and the app is god damn free. You just can’t beat that. I had not actually intended on seeking out 12 Angy Men; I was merely perusing Tubi when I came across it and noted its easily digestible one hour and thirty-six minute runtime.

The movie sees twelve unnamed jurors start off by sitting through the judge’s instructions at what is clearly the end of a trial. They then enter the jury room–the crowded and hot jury room without a working fan–and they set about talking to each other and getting ready to rule on the case. You know I love me an extended one-take shot, and we get about seven to eight minutes of one here as the jurors position themselves around the room and start chatting.

From there they decide to vote on the fate of the eighteen year old boy who is on trial. It soon becomes apparent they are not unanimous in their decision, and that sets the wheels in motion for the rest of the movie…

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+ 12 Angry Men is absolutely gripping, in a way that a hundred minute movie about people talking shouldn’t be able to be. I was riveted by the scenario and the arguments from the word Go, and I was never not completely invested in the proceedings. Most of the twelve men come to full life as the movie wears on, and the breaking point that they each have as the case is discussed and reviewed is diverse and realistic. 

I’m not going to lie: I’m obviously a huge fan of big, bombastic movies with out-of-this-world action set pieces and enormous special effects blow-ups. My whole podcast to this point has been five-plus years of talking about movies based on comic books, and most of those are super heroic by their very nature. But I’m also always game for a much lower stakes flick about the dynamics between individuals. And this picture does that as well as any I’ve seen before.

+ There are things I absolutely love here, and two of them are that we never see the trial itself or the aftermath of the verdict. This isn’t about those things, and it’s not even about whether the boy is guilty or not. It’s about the purpose of a trial by jury. It’s about twelve men struggling to do the right thing… and whether the “right” thing is the just thing. The movie spotlights an important part of the legal process we don’t see enough attention paid to in other forms of media. 

A weaker movie would have been an hour longer, and it would have shown facets of the trial; it may have even all-but declared whether the defendant was guilty or not. But that’s not what this is about. And it tightened its focus to a laser point.

– Despite what I just said about a weaker effort, 12 Angry Men could have stood to have been a little longer, really, as I noted above that I was engaged the whole time. I could imagine a world where the arguing lasted another 15-20 minutes, thereby fleshing out the three or four jurors who don’t get the characterization that the others do. Honestly, Sidney Lumet, the director, probably absolutely nailed the runtime to make the movie as great as it is, but I enjoyed it enough that I could have stood more, personally. Maybe I’m just greedy.

– Even though this was somehow not spoiled for me at seventy years old, I never thought the conclusion was in doubt. There always seemed to be only one possible ending for this flick, and it’s the one we arrive at. Is that awful? No. Sometimes the right call is the easy call. But hey, it’s a stand-out movie, and you have to take what Downs there are to give. This just had a lack of real suspense to me, and that’s something, I guess.

I’m really giving away my Overall feelings on 12 Angry Men, and I don’t even feel bad about it. But since I’m spoiling to further praise it, let’s get right into my final thoughts!

OVERALL

12 Angry Men is a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes certified classic banger that was nominated for some of the Academy’s biggest awards, like Best Picture. Its scores across the Internet map are all high, actually, befitting the beloved piece of film that it is. So what did I think of it? It’s clearly amazing. The combination of the stellar composite cast and Lumet’s direction to really make the jury room seem suffocating is pitch perfect. I’m always a little worried a renowned classic might not be for me, but there was nothing to fear in regards to this one!