12 Angry Men Is Free to Watch on YouTube

Sometimes a great performance is all a movie needs. 12 Angry Men has 12 of them, supported by a script that needs little in the way of spectacle. The 1957 film is currently free to watch with ads on YouTube.

The story begins at the end of a murder trial. A young man, who barely looks old enough to have left high school, is accused of stabbing his father to death. The judge reminds the jury of its duty and says a conviction will mean a death sentence. The defendant silently looks toward the jury, and a couple of the men look back before they leave to deliberate.

Once the jurors have settled in their room, the foreman suggests a vote. Eleven believe the defendant is guilty. One is unsure. From there, they discuss whether to convict him.

About 95 percent of the black-and-white film takes place in the jury room. Only the beginning and end take place elsewhere. The men talk, argue and reveal their prejudices. They are identified by numbers such as “Juror 1” and “Juror 2.”

Henry Fonda plays the dissenting Juror 8 and gives the film’s most compelling performance. But each juror has something interesting to do and emerges as a fully developed character.

Martin Balsam plays Juror 1, the foreman. He keeps the discussion on track, though the arguments in the room shake even him.

John Fiedler, a character actor perhaps best remembered as the voice of Piglet, plays Juror 2. He seems easygoing and weak at first, but learns to stand up for himself, particularly after being insulted and seeing the bigotry behind some of the other men’s desire to convict.

Lee J. Cobb’s Juror 3 is a loudmouth determined to convict. His behavior makes him easy to dislike, but he becomes more sympathetic as it emerges that his anger has more to do with his estranged son than with the defendant.

E. G. Marshall plays Juror 4, a cold, analytical man who offers the strongest logical case for conviction.

Jack Klugman of The Odd Couple has one of the most sympathetic arcs as Juror 5. Like the accused, he is a “slum kid,” and he objects to the assumptions made about the young man’s social standing.

Edward Binns plays Juror 6, an understated blue-collar man who is easy to identify with.

Jack Warden is a familiar character actor who played Kermit and Fozzie’s newspaper boss in The Great Muppet Caper and Artie Lange’s dad in Dirty Work. As Juror 7, he cracks jokes and makes it clear he has tickets to a Yankee game that he does not want to miss.

Fonda’s Juror 8 is thoughtful and principled. He initially dissents because he is unsure, not because he is convinced the defendant is innocent. With a man’s life at stake, he believes the jury should take the time to discuss the case.

Fonda is moving and persuasive, but Juror 8 does not simply convince everyone else. Other jurors raise points of their own and sometimes persuade themselves. His performance is both commanding and subtle.

Joseph Sweeney plays Juror 9, an older man who is easy to overlook but makes some of the film’s most perceptive observations about the trial.

Ed Begley’s Juror 10 is a bigoted business owner determined to convict because of the defendant’s unspecified ethnicity. The crime took place in a New York City slum, and the accused is darker-skinned than everyone on the jury, a detail that matters to the discussion.

George Voskovec plays Juror 11, a European watchmaker who also faces bigotry in the room. Robert Webber plays Juror 12, an advertising man who initially shows little concern for the proceedings but eventually rises to the occasion.

Written by Reginald Rose, 12 Angry Men was the directorial debut of Sidney Lumet, who went on to make films including Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico and Network. Lumet gives the actors room to work. Early on, it becomes clear that the jurors will change their minds one at a time, but the reasons each man changes are what make the film so absorbing.

The film also invites viewers to consider when they change their own minds. The majority enters the jury room convinced by the case they have heard, and the evidence initially seems to point toward conviction. As the men reconsider it one by one, the viewer may do the same.

Source: Polygon