Lumet's filmed adaptation of Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men focuses primarily on prejudice and the ways in which prejudice can obscure or distort one's sense of justice. The twelve jurors in the film all have their own personalities, their own backgrounds, their own histories, their own preoccupations: one wants to catch the ballgame and is willing to vote whichever way will get him out of the room sooner; another sees the defendant as nothing more than the representation of everything he hates about ungrateful youths; another looks not at the defendant nor at his watch but rather at the facts and attempts to discern through them the actuality of events as they most likely would have occurred: for this juror, the truth is his preoccupation -- and by way of a series of arguments, first with one, then with another, he manages to convince his peers that he is not mistaken in thinking there is a reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the defendant. The film thus mixes logic, reason, argument, irrationality, emotion, pride, prejudice, claustrophobia (the jurors -- and the audience -- are confined to a small room for nearly all the film), justice, guilt, law, and the ultimate conflict between rightness and wrongness, truth and error to tell the story -- not of the young man whose fate depends upon the verdict of these twelve men -- but rather of the dynamic of the American system of justice and the minds, souls, hearts, and attitudes of those individuals tasked with the responsibility of administering it.As Louis Gianneti observes, Lumet used technique to heighten the dramatic tension of the film -- the technique utilized was rooted in how the director framed the shots as the film progressed. From initially consisting of open, wider shots, the film increasingly gave the viewer tighter, more focused shots of the characters in the room, showing them sweating, fanning themselves, seeking fresh air from the windows, escape from the hot room where tempers, minds and passions were beginning to war with one another. By using the room as a kind of cage in which this match of intellects, will, and prejudice were dueling, Lumet was able to construct a film that was as powerful intellectually as it was emotionally gripping -- and that was because he managed to make the room in which the jurors sat seem increasingly smaller and tighter as the film went on....
They begin by taking a vote -- without really discussing anything. The vote shows that only one of the twelve has seriously thought about the evidence presented them. The others have only applied themselves superficially to the facts of the case. They are indifferent to that which they are meant to do -- which is deliver justice.
Psychosocial Dynamics of Twelve Angry Men Social-Psychology of Twelve Angry Men As a portrayal of a microcosm of society -- enhanced by its drill-down into the 1950s era in which the plot unfolds -- few films are as excruciatingly accurate as 12 Angry Men. The story lends itself to analysis of team dynamics and conflict resolution techniques, with the promise of extending beyond explicit attributes, such as an all-male cast, and
Angry Men The jury in Twelve Angry Men is not diverse in terms of ethnicity and gender, because it consists of twelve white males. The only diversity evident is with Juror 5, who has a social class-consciousness that is different from the other men due to his having grown up poor. This little "in" to the theme of prejudice is what helps Juror 8 eventually persuade the others that their
Twelve Angry Men Criminal Justice Courts and procedures in the film version of Twelve Angry Men (1957). The title of the film Twelve Angry Men (1957) is somewhat misleading: there are actually eleven angry men depicted in the film and one rational man who is capable of seeing the facts. The classic courtroom drama depicts twelve male jurors who have recently heard a trial where a young Puerto Rican boy stands accused of
The theory involving Christine being determined to put an end to Rhoda's life can be related to her ration intervening, influencing her to take action before Rhoda continued her killings. Rhoda pays special attention to the way that her mother sees her, and, even though she knows that her mother has the power to denounce her, she does not attempt to murder Christine. The next in Rhoda's list of killings would
Indeed, this seems a direct response to the prevailing understanding of how one must ultimately achieve organizational effectiveness by seizing on common ground. As our research denotes, "humans are primordial team players. Our uniquely complex social relationships have been a crucial survival advantage. Our extraordinarily sophisticated talent for cooperation culminated in the modern organization." (Goleman, 199) Indeed, this is the very premise by which the judicial system is allowed
Abstract / Introduction When writing a “To Kill a Mockingbird” essay, keep in mind Harper Lee’s 1960 novel is a Pulitzer Prize winning classic. It was well-received at the time and is still loved and admired by new readers today. One of the reasons the story is so successful is that Lee uses archetypes to present a world of good and evil that is easy for audiences to understand. Atticus Finch
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