5 Great Movies Adapted From 5 Great Plays

2. 12 Angry Men

Both Sydney Lumet and Henry Fonda rated this as one of their favorite films they had ever made. It is obvious why. 12 men, 12 different, normal men find themselves put together on the jury for an 'open and closed' patricide case. A young boy from the slums is accused of stabbing his father to death.

There's an old man who claimed he heard the crime, a woman from across the street saw him do it through the bedroom window, and a rare knife that the kid had been see to purchase just days before, was found embedded in the body at the crime scene. When it comes to the verdict, eleven of the men consider it case closed, happy days and home in time for the baseball match. One man disagrees...

The one man is Juror #8 (Henry Fonda), the protagonist of the piece. Fonda is unable to find the boy guilty, not because he believes him innocent, but because he has reasonable doubt against some of the evidence used in the trial. This begins, what essentially makes up the whole film - a debate. A debate that begins with the trial, and turns into an attack on the flaws and prejudices of each man sat at the table. It's a masterstroke in filming from Lumet, who takes the term 'pressure cooker drama' to an unbearably uncomfortable level. Much like Elysian Fields in Streetcar, the poky juror room in 12 Angry Men, is as much a character as any of its twelve inhabitants. It has its flaws - stiff windows and a broken fan, but it has its charm as well. The addition of a fifties attitude to smoking and a natural (and clearly shown) need to sweat add to the uncomfortable viewing. One character goes as far as to ask if Juror #4 is "immune to sweat" as he is sat in suit jacket, tie done up to the neck, whilst the questioner lies flagging in his chair, several buttons undone and mini-oceans forming under his arms. Due to the laws and attitudes of the time, 12 Angry Men has become unique to its era. It could never be re-made. If it were, it would simply be a period piece set in the fifties - a homage to the flawed attitudes of the white middle class in the era. It would loose any sense of credibility if it were to be modernized (there's no way you'd get a jury made up solely of white middle class males today!) but for me this is what makes the film so utterly interesting. It is timeless. It is, what it was at the time. The message it sends is a message applicable sixty years ago... a flawless piece of filmmaking.