12 Angry Men Essay, Research Paper

Characterization plays a major part in most movies, this is what gives

the audience insights into a characters personality. The film 12 Angry Men

relies more heavily on the use of characterization than any other movie I can

think of. Due to the lack of special effects and because the film takes place

almost entirely in a small jury room the development of characters was key.

This star studded cast of actors included such names as: Henry Fonda, Lee J.

Cobb, and Ed Begley, even the guy from The Odd Couple was in the movie.

An important part of characterization deals with how characters are

revealed. There are four major methods of revealing characterization:

actions, appearance, dialogue, and thoughts. The film 12 Angry Men makes

strong use of all of these methods, but the use of appearance seems to be the

primary method used in revealing characterization. As we are introduced to

the characters we can make fairly accurate assumptions of their personality

based on the court room scene at the beginning of the film. For instance,

juror number two looks like the prototypical nerd; wearing glasses, looking

very awkward and small in stature. Also, juror number six looks very rough

and presumably unintelligent; very large in stature with a strong jaw line

and wearing his shirt unbuttoned at the top without a tie. We can also make

assumptions about Henry Fonda s character(juror #8) based on his

appearance. He looks very intelligent and almost angelic in his all white

suit and with his tall and slender build. Later in the movie these ideas are

reinforced by the other three methods of characterization. However, there is

one character whose appearance is misleading. Juror number five appears

to be the average middle class citizen, but in fact he hails from the slums.

Once again, since the film takes place in the small, suffocating jury

room we get to know quite a lot about characters. For example, we learn

that juror number ten is a racist, that juror number four resents young people

due to his own sour relationship with his son, and that juror number three is

a cool and calm stockbroker who never sweats . With as much as we learn

about the twelve jurors we never find out if they take anything home with

them after the trial. For instance, does juror number ten s opinion of

minorities change, or does juror number four resolve the conflict with his

son.

As in society the jury s members were made up of those with very

strong personalities and not so strong personalities, or leaders and

followers. Which is fitting because a jury is supposed to be a sample of

society. However, there really isn t a sample of society in the film as half of

our society is missing from the movie, women. Also, there are no minorities

in this jury. I find this a little hard to believe because I would think that a

defense attorney would try to select a jury made up of mostly women

because the crime in question had to do with a son killing his father, which

is something that might persuade some men to vote guilty. Also, I would

think the defense attorney would also try to get as many minorities on the

jury as possible since the defendant is supposed to be representing all

minorities.

Another extremely important aspect of film is conflict, without an

interesting conflict a film becomes uninteresting. Of course there is the

classic good versus evil conflict, but in 12 Angry Men the conflict seems to

be more along the lines of just versus unjust. There is no real good versus

evil scenario because all of the conflict in the movie revolves around

discussion of a court case, and no character can be classified as evil (not

even jurors number ten or four). Never the less, this movie definitely had

its share of conflict. In the beginning of the movie the conflict is between

Henry Fonda s character and the other eleven jurors as to whether there is

enough evidence to convict, and ultimately put to death, a young man. As

the movie continues we begin to see other more subtle conflicts arise. One

of these subtle or inner conflicts is shown in the scene where juror number

four talks about kids these days and tells the others of the scuffle between

he and his son. You can see the anger, fear, and sorrow on his face and hear

it in his voice as he tells the story while staring at a picture of his son.

Although with this conflict we see no actual resolution it is assumed that by

voting not guilty he is in fact letting go of this hatred towards young people

and forgiving his son. The same assumption can be made for juror number

ten who gives a speech about them , referring to minorities, revealing his

racist beliefs. By voting not guilty it can be assumed that he is dismissing

his racist beliefs. In the end of the movie the major conflict is resolved, the

boy is found not guilty.

To conclude, 12 Angry Men uses strong characterization due to its

lack of special effects and because the virtually the entire film is shot in the

same small room. Also the film makes good use of conflict, although it

doesn t use the prototypical good versus evil conflict. This film makes

statements about how our judicial system is supposed to operate, and gives

society a model for the ideal citizen in Henry Fonda.