12 Anrgy Men

Characterization plays a major part in most movies, this is what gives

the audience insights into a characters personality. The film 12 Angry Men

relies more heavily on the use of characterization than any other movie I can

think of. Due to the lack of special effects and because the film takes place

almost entirely in a small jury room the development of characters was key.

This star studded cast of actors included such names as: Henry Fonda, Lee J.

Cobb, and Ed Begley, even the guy from The Odd Couple was in the movie.

An important part of characterization deals with how characters are

revealed. There are four major methods of revealing characterization:

actions, appearance, dialogue, and thoughts. The film 12 Angry Men makes

strong use of all of these methods, but the use of appearance seems to be the

primary method used in revealing characterization. As we are introduced to

the characters we can make fairly accurate assumptions of their personality

based on the court room scene at the beginning of the film. For instance,

juror number two looks like the prototypical nerd; wearing glasses, looking

very awkward and small in stature. Also, juror number six looks very rough

and presumably unintelligent; very large in stature with a strong jaw line

and wearing his shirt unbuttoned at the top without a tie. We can also make

assumptions about Henry Fonda’s character(juror #8) based on his

appearance. He looks very intelligent and almost angelic in his all white

suit and with his tall and slender build. Later in the movie these ideas are

reinforced by the other three methods of characterization. However, there is

one character whose appearance is misleading. Juror number five appears

to be the average middle class citizen, but in fact he hails from the slums.

Once again, since the film takes place in the small, suffocating jury

room we get to know quite a lot about characters. For example, we learn

that juror number ten is a racist, that juror number four resents young people

due to his own sour relationship with his son, and that juror number three is

a cool and calm stockbroker who “never sweats”. With as much as we learn

about the twelve jurors we never find out if they take anything home with

them after the trial. For instance, does juror number ten’s opinion of

minorities change, or does juror number four resolve the conflict with his

son.

As in society the jury’s members were made up of those with very

strong personalities and not so strong personalities, or leaders and

followers. Which is fitting because a jury is supposed to be a sample of

society. However, there really isn’t a sample of society in the film as half of

our society is missing from the movie, women. Also, there are no minorities

in this jury. I find this a little hard to believe because I would think that a

defense attorney would try to select a jury made up of mostly women

because the crime in question had to do with a son killing his father, which

is something that might persuade some men to vote guilty. Also, I would

think the defense attorney would also try to get as many minorities on the

jury as possible since