3rd Favorite Movie - 12 Angry Men

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

In an attempt to get my mind off of that terrible Cowboys game (as well as stay out of Bethany's path) I thought I'd blog about my next movie.

I saw 12 Angry Men for the first time about 6 years ago in Fresno when some friends showed it to me. After they showed it to me, I went and watached it with another friend who had not seen the next day. The "12 Angry Men" are all members of a jury. A young man is on trial for murder and it is up to the 12 of them to decide his fate. While I have been playing spoiler left and right on this blog, I just can't bring myself to do it here with this movie. What I will tell you is that over the course of the movie one man (played by Henry Fonda) has the courage to stand alone against the rest of the jurors - not for personal gain - but simply because he feels it is the right thing to do.

I have heard of high school government classes showing this movie to look at how our legal system works. After watching this movie, a pretty good debate could get going as to whether our system is fair or not. I have also heard of sociology classes showing it to study the effects of racism. Subtly, the film suggests certain characters may have certain prejudices early on and then toward the end we understand why this is important. I am told that psychology classes even show this film to talk about the dynamics of being in a group. I think it is all altogether fascinating.

Henry Fonda's character (along with Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird) is one of my cinematic heroes for his persistence, his refusal to give in to "peer pressure", and his all-around goodness and integrity. The scene where he pulls the knife out and sticks it in the table is also one of my all-time favorites. Interestingly, we never hear the names of most of the men in the movie - in the credits they are listed as Juror #'s 1-12. Also, pretty much the whole film takes place in one room. But don't let that stop you from seeing it... you figure it HAS to be pretty good to be #3 on my list, right?