c

 (1957 film)

c

 is a 1957 American drama film adapted from a teleplay of the same name by Reginald
Rose.[1][2] Directed by Sidney Lumet, the film tells the story of a jury made up of 12 men as they deliberate
the guilt or innocence of a defendant on the basis of reasonable doubt. The film is notable for its almost
exclusive use of one set: with the exception of two short scenes at the beginning and the end of the film
set on the steps of the court building and two short scenes in an adjoining washroom, the entire movie
takes place in the jury room. The total time spent outside of the jury room is three minutes out of the full
96 minutes of the movie.

c

 explores many techniques of consensus-building, and the difficulties encountered in the
process, among a group of men whose range of personalities adds intensity and conflict. Apart from two
of the jurors swapping names while leaving the courthouse, no names are used in the film: the defendant
is referred to as "the boy" and the witnesses as the "old man" and "the lady across the street".

In 2007, c

 was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by
the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot
After the final closing arguments have been presented to the judge, he gives his instructions to the jury. In
the United States (both then and now), the verdict in criminal cases (whether guilty or not guilty) must be
unanimous (all must agree on guilty or not guilty). A non-unanimous verdict results in a hung jury which in
turn forces a mistrial. The question they are deciding is whether the defendant, a teenage boy from a city
slum, murdered his father. The jury is further instructed that a guilty verdict will be accompanied by a
mandatory death sentence (under current American criminal law, a defendant must first be found guilty or
not guilty, and then the jury in the sentencing phase must find an aggravating circumstance to
recommend the death penalty). The jury of twelve retires to the jury room where they begin to become
acquainted with each other's personalities and discuss the case.

The plot of the film revolves around their difficulty in reaching a unanimous verdict, mainly due to several
of the jurors' personal prejudices. An initial vote is taken and eleven of the jurors vote "guilty". Juror
number 8 (Henry Fonda), the lone dissenter, states that the evidence presented is circumstantial and the
boy deserves a fair deliberation, whereupon he questions the accuracy and reliability of the only two
witnesses to the murder, the fact that the knife used in the murder is not as unusual as testimony
promotes (he produces an identical one from his pocket), and the overall shady circumstances.
Having argued several points, Juror 8 requests another vote, this time by secret ballot. He proposes that
he will abstain from voting, and if the other eleven jurors vote guilty unanimously, then he will acquiesce
to their decision. However, if at least one juror votes "not guilty" then they will continue deliberating. In a
secret ballot Juror 9 (Joseph Sweeney) is the first to support Juror 8, not necessarily believing the
accused is not guilty, but feeling that Juror 8's points deserve further discussion.

After hearing further deliberations concerning whether one witness actually heard the murder take place,
Juror 5 (Jack Klugman) - who grew up in a slum - changes his vote to ³not guilty.´ This earns criticism
from Juror 3 (Lee J. Cobb), who accuses him of switching only because he has sympathy for slum
children. Soon afterward, Juror 11 (George Voskovec), questioning whether the defendant would have
reasonably fled the scene and come back three hours later to retrieve his knife, also changes his vote.

After Jurors 2 (John Fiedler) and 6 (Edward Binns) also decide to vote "not guilty" to tie the vote at 6-6,
Juror 7 (who has baseball tickets to a game at 8:00 that night) becomes tired and also changes his vote
just so that the deliberation may end, which earns him nothing but shame. When pressed by Juror 11,
however, Juror 7 (Jack Warden) says he truly believes the defendant is not guilty because he has a
reasonable doubt.

The next people to change their votes are Jurors 12 (Robert Webber) and 1 (Martin Balsam) when Juror
8 demonstrates that it is unlikely that one witness actually saw the boy flee the scene, making the vote 9-
3. The only dissenters left are Jurors 3, 4 (E.G. Marshall), and 10 (Ed Begley). Outraged at how the
proceedings have gone, Juror 10 proceeds to go into a bigoted and narrowminded rage on why people
from the slums cannot be trusted, and as he speaks, one by one the other jurors turn their backs to him
until only Juror 4 remains. A confused Juror 10 wonders why the others are turning away from him. Juror
10 insists that they "Listen to me. Listen." Juror 4 responds, ³I have. Now sit down and don't open your
mouth again.´

When Juror 4 is pressed as to why he still maintains his vote, he states his belief that despite all the other
evidence that has been called into question, the fact remains that the woman who saw the murder from
across the street still stands as solid evidence. After he points this out, Juror 12 changes his vote back to
³guilty´ to make the vote 8-4 again.

Then Juror 9, after seeing Juror 4 rub his nose (which is being irritated by his glasses), realizes that, like
Juror 4, the witness who allegedly saw the murder had impressions in the sides of her nose, indicating
that she wore glasses, and asks juror number 4 if he wears his eyeglasses to sleep, then juror number 4
says no. After he points this out, Jurors 12, 10, and 4 all change their vote to ³not guilty.´

Last of all to agree is the rigid Juror 3 who, after a long confrontation with Juror 8, breaks down after
glancing at and furiously tearing up a picture of him and his son. It is established earlier in the film that
Juror 3 had a bad relationship with the boy and it is exposed as the real reason why he so badly wanted
the accused to be guilty until this moment. The final vote is unanimous for acquittal. All Jurors leave and
the defendant is found not guilty off-screen, while Juror 8 helps the distraught Juror 3 with his coat in a
show of compassion. In an epilogue, the friendly Jurors 8 (Davis) and 9 (McArdle) exchange names (all
Jurors having remained nameless throughout the movie) and the movie ends.

[edit]Cast of characters





 
 

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[edit]Production

Reginald Rose's screenplay for c

 was initially produced for television (starring Robert
Cummings as Juror #8), and was broadcast live on the CBS program
 
 in September 1954. A
complete kinescope of that performance, which had been missing for years and was feared lost, was
[3]
discovered in 2003. It was staged at Chelsea Studios in New York City.

The success of the television production resulted in a film adaptation. Sidney Lumet, whose prior
directorial credits included dramas for television productions such as the 
 and
 
, was
recruited by Henry Fonda and Rose to direct. c

 was Lumet's first feature film, and for Fonda
and Rose, who co-produced the film, it was their first and only role as film producers. Fonda later stated
that he would never again produce a film.

The filming was completed after a short but rigorous rehearsal schedule in less than three weeks on a
budget of about $350,000.
At the beginning of the film, the cameras are positioned above eye level and mounted with wide-angle
lenses to give the appearance of greater depth between subjects, but as the film progresses thefocal
length of the lenses is gradually increased. By the end of the film, nearly everyone is shown in closeup
using telephoto lenses from a lower angle, which decreases or "shortens" depth of field. Lumet, who
began his career as a director of photography, stated that his intention in using these techniques with
cinematographer Boris Kaufman was to create a nearly palpable claustrophobia.[4]

[edit]Reception

[edit]è

 

On its first release, c

 received critical acclaim. A. H. Weiler of 


  wrote "It
makes for taut, absorbing, and compelling drama that reaches far beyond the close confines of its jury
room setting." His observation of the twelve men was that "their dramas are powerful and provocative
enough to keep a viewer spellbound." [5] However, it was not a commercial success: the advent of colour
and widescreen productions resulted in a disappointing box office performance.

Despite this, the film is today viewed as a classic, highly regarded from both a critical and popular
viewpoint: Roger Ebert lists it as one of his "Great Movies".[6] The American Film Institute named Juror #8,
played by Henry Fonda, 28th in a list of the 50 greatest movie heroes of the 20th century, and Fonda
himself as 6th of the 25 greatest American screen legends among males. AFI also named c


 the 42nd most inspiring film, the 88th most heart-pounding film and the 87th best film of the
past hundred years. In June 2008, it revealed AFI's 10 Top 10²the best ten films in ten "classic"
American film genres²after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. c

 was
acknowledged as the second best film in the courtroom drama genre. As of August 2009, the film holds a
100% approval rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes.[7]

[edit]Ê  
The film was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Director, Best Picture, and Best
Writing of Adapted Screenplay. It lost to the movie 
 



 
 in all three categories. At
[8]
the 7th Berlin International Film Festival, the film won the Golden Bear Award.

[edit]Adaptations

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 and 

#$ have episodes based on
the film. In the latter, Oscar Madison, the first juror to change his mind, was played by Jack Klugman, who
played Juror 5 in this film.

Indian director Basu Chatterjee remade the film as %


"  in 1986.
The movie was the basis for the 1993 
 episode "The Juror": Matlock was initially the lone juror
voting "not guilty" and had to convince the others, one by one, with many personality conflicts erupting.

c

 was remade for television in 1997. Directed by William Friedkin, the remake stars George
C. Scott, James Gandolfini, Tony Danza, William Petersen, Ossie Davis, Hume Cronyn,Courtney B.
Vance, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mykelti Williamson, Edward James Olmos, Dorian Harewood, and Jack
Lemmon. In this production, the judge is a woman and four of the jurors are African American (in
interviews, producers said they decided against putting a woman in the jury because they did not want to
change the title). Still, most of the action and dialogue of the film are identical to the original.
Modernizations include a prohibition on smoking in the jury room, the changing of references to income
and pop culture figures, more dialogue relating to race, and occasional profanity.

One episode of &


 is based largely on the film. But in this case, Eric Camden is the lone juror
who believes the defendant is  
 and must convince the other jurors of his guilt (the complete opposite
of the movie's plot). This adaptation also deals with racism in the criminal justice system.

The second season of ' 
 has an episode called "One Angry Veronica" based on Lumet's film.

The first season of 
( has an episode called "False Alarm", based on the film, in which Arnold,
Gerald, Helga, Phoebe, Harold, and Curly are a jury, and must reach a verdict over Eugene pulling a
false alarm in school. Arnold is similar to Juror 8, and Curly is similar to Juror 3.

In 2007, Russian film director Nikita Mikhalkov completed "12", his remake of the movie. The jury of the
64th Venice Film Festival assigned its special prize to this remake '




 



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[edit]
 

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+$,

Rose wrote several stage adaptations of the story. In 1964, Leo Genn appeared in the play on the
London stage. In other theatrical adaptations in which female actors are cast, the play is retitled c


- or c

..

In 2004, the Roundabout Theatre Company presented a Broadway production of the play, starring Boyd
Gaines as a more combative Juror No. 8, with James Rebhorn (No. 4), Philip Bosco (No. 3), andRobert
Prosky as the voice of the judge. In 2007, c

 ran on a national theatre tour with Richard
Thomas and George Wendt starring as Jurors No. 8 and No. 1, respectively. The 2008 tour does not
include Wendt but features another popular television personality, Kevin Dobson of / and 


0 , as Juror No. 10.

[edit]Cultural Influences
Speaking at a screening of the film during the 2010 Fordham University Law School Film
festival, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor stated that seeing c

 while she was in
college influenced her decision to pursue a career in law. She was particularly inspired by immigrant Juror
11's monologue on his reverence for the American justice system. She also told the audience of law
students that, as a lower-court judge, she would sometimes instruct juries to not follow the film's example,
because most of the jurors' conclusions are based on speculation, not fact.[11] Sotomayor noted that
events such as Juror #8 entering a similar knife into the proceeding, doing outside research into the case
matter in the first place, and ultimately the jury as a whole making broad, wide ranging assumptions far
beyond the scope of reasonable doubt (such as the inferences regarding the "Old Woman" wearing
glasses) would never be allowed to occur in a real life jury situation, and would in fact have yielded
a mistrial.[12]