Sometimes The System Works?

The same Slackers in Columbia that had The Singing Detective also had 12 Angry Men, so I decided to get my own copy. I'm pretty sure my dad's is an old VHS he taped off TV. I love 12 Angry Men. I think the first time I saw it, my dad was showing it for one of his Mock Trial teams, so it was probably junior high, maybe earlier than that. I wouldn't think a black and white film about 12 guys yelling at each other would catch my attention, but it did.

I've watched it a lot, so this time, I decided to focus on a couple of things. The camera for one. The special features section had Sidney Lumet discuss how he used longer lenses as the movie progressed so the walls and ceiling would seem to be closing in. I didn't notice that, but maybe I was too aware that he was going for that effect. I did notice characters will get up and circle the entire table while talking. I thought that was nifty, since it amplifies the sense of confinement, and also that feeling they're going around in circles. For all the yelling and tirades, they end up back where they started, the question of whether there's a reasonable doubt as to the defendant's guilt.

What I noticed is how well he moves the camera, so it isn't static. That'd be easy with all the action confined to one room. Instead, he'll have the camera start on one juror, or a pair of them. Someone in the shot starts moving, and the we follow them until our eye intersects with another discussion. Sometimes it zooms in of the face of the speaker, other times we observe them from over somebody else's shoulder. He varies it, so our perspective changes.

One bit I like is how the camera can be surprised like we are. After the second vote - the one that will determine whether #8 (Henry Fonda) continues to hold out - the rest want to know who else has decided to vote "not guilty". #11 raises the point they agreed to vote by secret ballot. From off-camera, #3 blurts out with "Secret?!", and it's a moment later the camera shifts to him, now in full tirade. We're not observing at some sterile distance, we're in amongst them, and as we focus on one juror the others are carrying on their own reactions.

Which brings me to the second thing I wanted to watch, the reactions of the characters in the background. Since they can quickly become the focus, it seemed like a good idea, and it's instructive to watch their reactions. #10 (Ed Begley) tends to have an open-mouthed nervousness to him, especially when 3 and 8 are butting heads. It plays up how much of his bigotry is fear of things outside his control, that he doesn't understand. #7 usually sits sideways, not facing the table directly because he really doesn't want to engage with all this. He just wants to see his ballgame.

Fonda was probably the most interesting. I wasn't sure what to make of him in the opening scene, as they listen to the judge's instructions in the courtroom. He sits there, his fingers resting on his lips. He's not bored, but it's almost the look of a man trying to look like he's paying attention. But he admits he doesn't know whether the boy is guilty or not, he only felt they shouldn't be so quick to sentence him to death. It makes me wonder if he had to convince himself as much as the others, or if that was a bluff. I know he was truly relieved when the secret ballot revealed someone else voting "not guilty". Was it because he didn't want to stand alone, or because, if his gambit failed, he'd promised to give up fighting the rest of them, and he felt guilty? I also like that during the interlude in the bathroom, he never looks at #7 during their whole conversation. Not once. Because he knows 7 isn't saying anything useful. It's just some bullshit spiel to try and change 8's mind. But when #6 comes in and starts talking, asking Fonda if he really thinks the boy is innocent, Fonda does engage with him. They make eye contact, chat about it, because 6 actually does care, he just happens to believe the boy is guilty. But that doesn't make him bad, like 7 with his indifference.

I think he grows into his belief in the boy's innocence. There was a germ of it, even during the trial; otherwise he wouldn't have gone out to purchase a switchblade. But he needed help to articulate those concerns, and that's where the other jurors come in. Their experiences, their observations, the things they recognize in the witnesses or the defendant, all those steadily tear down the case, and you can almost see Fonda grow stronger. He spends more of the movie standing up, and staying straight and tall in the face of whatever #3 throws at him. Since Lumet shifted the camera down over the course of the film, it makes Fonda grow in stature and power.

'Well I'm not used to supposin'. I'm just a working man. My boss does the supposin' - but I'll try one. Supposin' you talk us all out of this and, uh, the kid really did knife his own father?'