12 Angry Men, by Sidney Lumet, may be the most radical big-screen courtroom drama in cinema history.
A behind-closed-doors look at the American legal system as riveting as it is spare, the iconic adaptation of Reginald Rose’s teleplay stars Henry Fonda as the initially dissenting member of a jury of white men ready to pass judgment on a Puerto Rican teenager charged with murdering his father.
What results is a saga of epic proportions that plays out in real time over ninety minutes in one sweltering room. Lumet’s electrifying snapshot of 1950s America on the verge of change is one of the great feature-film debuts. –The Criterion Collection
Cast: Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Ed Binns, Jack Warden, Henry Fonda, Joseph Sweeney, Ed Begley, George Voskovec, Robert Webber
Berlinale (Competition): Golden Bear, Berlinale (Retrospective)
Read about this film
Title: Twelve Angry Men | 12 Angry Men (1957)
Directed by: Sidney Lumet
Date of birth: 25 June 1924, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Date of death: April 9, 2011, New York City, New York, U.S.
Writing credits:
Reginald Rose
Music by: Kenyon Hopkins
Country: United States
Language: English
Color: Black and White
Runtime: 96 min.