Following the closing arguments in a murder trial, twelve members of the jury must decide the fate of an inner-city teen. The deliberation process brings out the jurors’ prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.

Wrinkled button-down shirts, ashtrays filled to the brim—director Sidney Lumet surveys the strain of deliberation in this humane, detail-oriented drama. With its sublime use of close-up and propulsive dialogue, 12 Angry Men launched one of the finest storytellers of the modern American experience.