Twelve Angry Men? What Is

¶ … Twelve Angry Men? What is the author saying about the justice system? What is the author saying about human nature? Give examples. One man can ensure that justice is done: one man can resist the collective force of an angry mob. This is the fundamental theme of Twelve Angry Men. However, the mob violence that is prevented by one man does not threaten the safety of the streets: rather, it takes place in a jury room of the American judicial system.

At the beginning of the film, eleven of the twelve jurors believe that the trial they have just witnessed depicts an open-and-shut case of guilt. One juror, and one juror alone, is willing to challenge the assumptions of the other men. For going against the will of the majority, he is insulted and called a naive and credulous 'do-gooder.' Human nature is inclined to conform, rather than oppose the will of the majority. It is difficult to stand up for one's beliefs when they are unpopular.

Also, it is very easy to mistrust one's eyes and ears when everyone else seems to have the opposite opinion, even though they heard the same evidence. The physical circumstances of the jury room -- it is said to be stiflingly hot -- also make the men inclined to rush to judgment. They wish to put their own comfort first, not their collective obligation to see justice done. The fact that the defendant is not 'like them' makes them even more inclined to hurry the verdict.

The case the men must decide is of a young Latino accused of killing his father. Although there is only circumstantial and eyewitness testimony, because of their own personal prejudices against the defendant's ethnic group, the eleven angry jurors are apt to believe he must have committed a violent, senseless act. But it is they who nearly commit violence, by condemning him to death. 2.

Why did the director choose to film Twelve Angry Men in black and white? What effect did it have on the mood of the story? What effect did it have on the plot? The use of black-and-white cinematography is symbolically significant and powerful on several levels in the film version of Twelve Angry Men. First, the men are deciding what is a black-and-white issue: innocence or guilt. Only Juror 8, played by Henry Fonda, tries to see shades of gray in the issues that arise during the trial.

Fonda is dressed in white, which makes his defiant stance against the call for a guilty verdict seem even more pure, radical, and shocking. The defendant who is accused is non-white, while all of the jurors are white, and the black-and-white cinematic texture makes their whiteness seem even more starkly manifest. The notion of blackness and whiteness would have subtly played upon the viewer's awareness of the Civil Rights movement in America, which was only just beginning to take shape, as well as the black-and-white McCarthy hearings on television.

Many Americans still watched newsreels of current events in the cinema so the black-and-white images of Twelve Angry Men would have looked more like news than a film. The lack of spectacular Technicolor gives.