My parents recommended 12 Angry Men to me.

Over the Christmas break, my parents and I watched a bunch of classic films. Some of them will even appear in future editions of Late to the Party.

I didn’t know much about 12 Angry Men or even some of the actors. Henry Fonda rings a bell, as does Ed Begley. Their faces weren’t familiar, but I figured they were the ones who had the most lines.

The majority of 12 Angry Men takes place inside a jury room. The men are deciding the fate of an 18-year-old Latino man who’s accused of killing his father. Everyone seems on board for a guilty verdict, especially if it means getting out early. There’s one guy holding everything up though. He won’t budge. One by one, he starts pulling them over to his side.

I enjoyed watching this play out. The details of the crime slowly unravelled as this one juror looked to convince the next person who started having doubts. It wasn’t always the evidence (or lack of it) that turned someone. The movie did a great job of highlighting personal biases, scrutinising witness reliability, and tapping into the motivations of some of the prejudiced jurors.

It also emphasised reasonable doubt over innocence. There was a lot of debate about who killed the father, but that wasn’t their problem to solve. They had to decide whether the 18-year-old did it.

How 12 Angry Men was shot also stood out to me. I felt like I was sitting in a hot, cramped room with all of the jurors. I could feel the summer heat through the screen, which no doubt fuelled the tension in the room. Every shot felt claustrophobic, and the lack of music put a spotlight on footsteps and chairs scraping along a wooden floor. The silence hit hardest when no one was talking and everyone was rethinking their verdict.

My only criticism is the lack of distinguishable characters. No one really stood out, except for the guy who wanted to go to his baseball game. He had a bit of a jock mentality. The rest blurred together after a while. That might have been intentional, but keeping track of who was who got tricky at times. It didn’t help that their names were never used. Henry Fonda is credited as Juror #8.

If you can track it down (I watched it on Prime Video), I’d recommend checking out 12 Angry Men. It only goes for 90 minutes and flies by. The story is interesting, the acting is great and it’s filmed well for something that came out in 1957.

It’s a classic for a reason.

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