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PHOTO S. SIVA SARAVANAN

A DOZEN MEN To save a life

Many out there who thought they were spending their Sunday evening wisely at a coffee bar or restaurant were, sadly, mistaken. For, the handful who faithfully gathered at the screening of 12 Angry Men by Konangal Film Society was treated to a pure entertainer.

The film opens in a courtroom where the judge asks a panel of 12 jurors to give their consensus on the verdict on a murder case. The accused is a teenager from a slum, who has supposedly killed his father. The jury’s verdict will put him on or pull him off the electric chair.

At the jury room, there is consensus. Well, almost. All vote ‘guilty’, while juror number eight votes ‘not guilty’ because he does ‘not know’. And, the gripping tale on a hot afternoon in the confines of a rectangular room begins.

Juror number eight (played excellently by Henry Fonda) has doubts on the eye witnesses’ accounts: the old man with a limp could not have reached the door in 15 seconds, nor could the middle-aged woman have seen the murder 60 feet away, around midnight, without her spectacles, and anyone in panic could have forgotten the characters in a film they watched (like the accused who remembered nothing when questioned by the police). He also proves that the knife used for the murder is not as ‘unique’ as it initially seems. In the process, he takes on 11 men, each from a different profession and with a different attitude: prejudiced, meek, agreeable, reasonable, indifferent, irritable, impatient, rude, etc. And, after an hour-and-a-half, from 11 voting ‘guilty’, you have the of 12 voting ‘not guilty’!

It is hard to believe that it was director Sidney Lumet’s debut. He does a brilliant job with just 12 sweaty jurors. He beautifully delineates the background of the murder, without pushing it in our face. Nor does he give the names of the jurors or explains the aftermath of their verdict. He steals hearts for the camera angles. The tight close-ups catch the emotional war on the jurors’ faces. For instance, the relief on Henry Fonda’s wrinkled visage when he learns that one other juror has also voted not guilty. Though the story does not move from the seriousness of the issue, it is not without its share of subtle humour or clever lines. Sample these: One of the jurors says ‘He don’t even speak good English’, and that when the train passes ‘you can hardly hear yourself think’. As someone rightly said, everything about this wonderful movie is tight: script, editing and budget!

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