Cinema Seminar:
12 Angry Men

Taught by Andrew J. Douglas, Ph.D.
Senior Director of Education, Renew Theaters

Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men (1957) is one of those rare American movies–like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and All the President’s Men–that works exceedingly well both as a motion picture and as an exemplar of our civic institutions overcoming ignorance and corruption to let justice carry the day.

Certainly, Reginald Rose’s screenplay, based on his own original teleplay, is a big part of the reason why. Its inspired premise of a lone juror (Henry Fonda) holding out against his 11 peers, who are speeding toward a guilty verdict for a teen accused of murder, sets the stage for sharp characterizations and the exploration of profound themes.

But Rose’s writing wouldn’t have come to life without a first-time producer and the rookie filmmaker he hired. Fonda (The Grapes of Wrath, Young Mr. Lincoln) felt strongly that this then-television director, Sidney Lumet, skilled in guiding actors and working with a small budget, was the perfect person to turn Rose’s work into a feature. How right he was. Lumet would go on to make more of the most thoughtful, entertaining, and socially conscious movies of his time. (You can see and learn about one of them, Dog Day Afternoon, here this summer.)

Veteran cinematographer Boris Kaufman (On the Waterfront) implemented Lumet’s thoughtful visual scheme, while an outstanding cast, including Martin Balsam, Jack Warden, and Lee J. Cobb, supported Fonda. They all collaborated to make the film Martin Scorsese called “revelatory, because that was the first time I saw what America could be.” Join us to learn more about it.