12 Angry Men

UPC: 715515089210

Studio: Criterion

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Adult Situations, Questionable for Children, Suitable for Teens]

Summary: A Puerto Rican youth is on trial for murder, accused of knifing his father to death. The twelve jurors retire to the jury room, having been admonished that the defendant is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Eleven of the jurors vote for conviction, each for reasons of his own. The sole holdout is Juror #8, played by Henry Fonda. As Fonda persuades the weary jurors to re-examine the evidence, we learn the backstory of each man. Juror #3 (Lee J. Cobb), a bullying self-made man, has estranged himself from his own son. Juror #7 (Jack Warden) has an ingrained mistrust of foreigners; so, to a lesser extent, does Juror #6 (Edward Binns). Jurors #10 (Ed Begley) and #11 (George Voskovec), so certain of the infallibility of the Law, assume that if the boy was arrested, he must be guilty. Juror #4 (E.G. Marshall) is an advocate of dispassionate deductive reasoning. Juror #5 (Jack Klugman), like the defendant a product of "the streets," hopes that his guilty vote will distance himself from his past. Juror #12 (Robert Webber), an advertising man, doesn't understand anything that he can't package and market. And Jurors #1 (Martin Balsam), #2 (John Fiedler) and #9 (Joseph Sweeney), anxious not to make waves, "go with the flow." The excruciatingly hot day drags into an even hotter night; still, Fonda chips away at the guilty verdict, insisting that his fellow jurors bear in mind those words "reasonable doubt." A pet project of Henry Fonda's, Twelve Angry Men was his only foray into film production; the actor's partner in this venture was Reginald Rose, who wrote the 1954 television play on which the film was based. Carried over from the TV version was director Sidney Lumet, here making his feature-film debut. A flop when it first came out (surprisingly, since it cost almost nothing to make), Twelve Angry Men holds up beautifully when seen today. It was remade for television in 1997 by director William Friedkin with Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Best Film - Any Source – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Foreign Actor – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Director – Directors Guild of America Best Picture - Drama – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – null Best Director – null Best Adapted Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Golden Bear – Berlin International Film Festival Best Picture – National Board of Review Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Screenplay – Edgar Allan Poe Awards

Features: New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Frank Schaffner's 1955 television version, with an introduction by Ron Simon, surator at the Paley Center for Media
Production history of 12 Angry Men, from teleplay to big-screen classic
Archival interviews with director Sidney Lumet
New interview with screenwriter Walter Bernstein about Lumet
New interview with Simon about writer Reginald Rose
Tragedy in a Temporary Town (1956), a teleplay directed by Lumet and written by Rose
New interview with cinematographer John Bailey about director of photography Boris Kaufman
Original theatrical trailer

12 Angry Men

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 11/22/2011

Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Vistavision

Runtime: 96 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English

Region: Blu-ray region A (North America, Central America, South America, Japan, Taiwan, North Korea, South Korea, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia)

Dan Jardine

Twelve Angry Men is a tightly wound top of a movie. Each scene ratchets up the tension another notch as Henry Fonda's character tries desperately to open the minds of his fellow jurors. The setting -- a claustrophobic jury room in the dog days of summer -- superbly augments the suspense. Operating within the constraints of a small budget, first-time director Sidney Lumet tightens the noose by accentuating the throbbing pulse of the ceiling fan and slowly narrowing his shots on his characters as the film approaches its climax. Based on Reginald Rose's well-known play, which had been adapted to the television screen three years earlier, Twelve Angry Men boasts a series of excellent performances by young actors who would soon become household names, including Jack Klugman, Jack Warden, and Martin Balsam. However, it is the film's established stars -- Lee J. Cobb, E. G. Marshall and most importantly Fonda -- who play the leads, delivering the goods like seasoned pros. The film has instructional value as a study of the inherent strengths and weaknesses of the jury system, but its real value is how it allows each member of the cultural mosaic of a jury to develop into distinct, damaged, and interesting characters. In a well-crafted metaphor for the broader outline of society, the jury members must confront their prejudices in order to see that justice prevails. Nominated for three Oscars, Twelve Angry Men ran into the juggernaut of Bridge on the River Kwai and came up empty handed. ~ Dan Jardine, Rovi

Cast and Crew: John Fiedler  Actor 
Henry Fonda  Producer 
Kenyon Hopkins  Composer (Music Score) 
Sidney Lumet  Director 
Reginald Rose  Producer 
Reginald Rose  Screenwriter 
Henry Fonda  Actor 
Lee J. Cobb  Actor 
Ed Begley, Sr.  Actor 
E.G. Marshall  Actor 
Jack Klugman  Actor 
Jack Warden  Actor 
Martin Balsam  Actor 
Edward Binns  Actor 
Joseph Sweeney  Actor 
George Voskovec  Actor 
Robert Webber  Actor 
Rudy Bond  Actor 
James A. Kelly  Actor 
Bill Nelson  Actor 
John Savoca  Actor 

Country: USA