Critics reviews

12 Angry Men is celebrated for its uniformly terrific cast, chiefly Henry Fonda's soft-spoken advocate and Lee J. Cobb's resistant blowhard, racked with daddy issues and not about to let an ungrateful teen go free... Meanwhile, too few films take on the art of arguing as a subject; we could certainly use more of them, but until then, Lumet's window into strained civic duty will continue to serve mightily.

Incredibly, 12 Angry Men was Lumet's feature directorial debut, a fact that remains massively impressive considering the film's meticulous craft and pacing. Harboring just as much compulsive energy and momentum as most modern Hollywood action films, 12 Angry Men makes every shot and line of dialogue count. It's a film immersed in the organic relationship between façade and perspective, how each character tries to hide their own weaknesses by lashing out at others.

In this, his feature film debut, Lumet adds – in small, discreet but powerful doses – a supple, cinematic language to the already crafty mise en scène of Rose's script. Around its mid-way mark, when developments in the jury room become particularly intense, Lumet deploys a slow crane shot moving into Fonda in close-up: the effect is electrifying, and all the more so because it has been held back until this point.

They're gonna be even angrier when they realize they almost certainly let a guilty man go free, thanks to the well-intentioned crusading of a juror who would likewise have voted to acquit O.J. Simpson... Terrible law doesn't preclude solid drama, though, and Rose's script is contrived to frequently superb effect, accumulating rhetorical force in direct proportion to Lumet's increasingly claustrophobic mise-en-scène.

Despite Truffaut's assessment ("a screenwriter's film"), very much a work of lenses and angles and lighting, "no real dead spots, know what I mean?" The immigrant watchmaker (George Voskovec) who praises "the remarkable thing about democracy" voices Rose's faith in human justice, Lumet's mordant questioning begs to differ in Serpico, Prince of the City, The Verdict, Running on Empty...