12 Angry Men

Due to how grandiose the claim, I hesitate to say that 12 Angry Men is the best legal drama I have ever seen (To Kill A Mockingbird is certainly also a contender) but it definitely stands above the vast majority of, honestly very solid, contenders in its genre. I like a Grisham adaptation as much as the next guy, but there is something to be said for 12 Angry Men’s raw simplicity. Its story is tight, its camerawork is highly effective while low on frills, and its acting is dramatic and griping.

12 Angry Men is adapted from a play but, unlike many such adaptations, it doesn’t feel the need to gussy things up to make it more grandiose and befitting the silver screen. The Importance of Being Earnest (2002) is a noteworthy example of how going bigger can ruin a classic. Instead, 12 Angry Men recognizes that the story’s foundational restrictions, namely the single fixed location and small cast, are as important to the drama as anything else. This doesn’t result in something flat or overly theatrical, however. Everything that makes the stage play work is heightened by the camera. For example, as the tension in the room slowly increases the camera favors more and more tight close ups and fewer and fewer wide and group shots. The camera can also highlight small details in a way that isn’t possible on stage. Inserts and cutaways can draw attention to a specific piece of physical evidence. Clever framing can place a broken ceiling fan in a dominant visual position, emphasising the oppressive heat of the smoke and tension filled room. Close ups allow emotionally charged monologues to land like the audience is in the room with the other jurors, rather than observing them from afar. This keeps the film feeling cinemagraphic even as it leans into its theatrical roots.

The acting in 12 Angry Men is also top notch. There is plenty of opportunity to ruin character monologues with overacting, taking dramatic moments and turning them into inadvertent farce. The script does an excellent job of letting the tension in the room build and build as the jurors disagree until it erupts in a dramatic outburst by one of the characters, resetting the tension somewhat until it begins to build anew. Like Jack Nicholson’s witness stand tirade at the end of A Few Good Men, another excellent legal drama, these moments are tricky, as in a less capable actor’s hands they wouldn’t have the same emotional gut punch or could even come across as melodramatically silly. 12 Angry Men doesn’t just dodge this once, but several times, as every heightened emotional moment is acted to perfection.

Lastly, 12 Angry Men succeeds so well as a legal drama because it takes the mundane of the legal system and crafts it into something interesting without the need for artifice. Of course Grishham, a former lawyer, understands the legal system intimately but frequently the films based on his works add extra layers of conspiracy, like in The Pelican Brief or The Firm, as an excuse to spice up the story by making it more of a thriller. Those are fun, don’t get me wrong, but 12 Angry Men’s ability to make something utterly compelling using just the grounded reality of a (mostly) everyday court case I think is deserving of extra praise. In that choice, it almost invites us to be more hopeful about our legal system. Yes, there is prejudice and malfeasance but the jury system allows for the possibility that one member, expressing reasonable doubt about the case, can save a potentially innocent man from imprisonment or worse.

12 Angry Men takes a simple premise, with a small cast and a single location, and elevates it to something dazzling. It not only has faith in its material, and the audience’s ability to connect with it intellectually, but knows how to correctly adapt that work to the screen, walking the difficult line between being too theatrical and being too overproduced. The writing and acting is top notch. While legal dramas are colloquially referred to as courtroom dramas, since they so frequently focus on the lawyers, judge, and specific details of a trial, 12 Angry Men ignores all of that to focus exclusively on the jurors and, perhaps despite or perhaps because of that choice, it creates a unique legal drama that easily competes with the best I’ve seen.

Would Recommend: If you find legal dramas compelling at all.

Would Not Recommend: If you need an explosion every five minutes to keep your attention.