Top 100 Movies of All Time, wherein we at THiNC. watch one hundred of the “best movies of all time” in order to eat our peas, and attempt to learn something we might not of otherwise. Personally, I ADORE dialogue movies, and closed box movies, so, I’m thinking that 12 Angry Men might actually make it to my own personal list of the top 100 movies of all time. I really really enjoyed this movie the first time I watched it, and I loved it even more re-watching it today. So let’s get to it shall we? 12 Angry Men!
Interested in watching 12 Angry Men right now? Here is where you can find it online right now:
Top 100 Movies of All Time 12 Angry Men Overview
Now, I will say, that the first time I watched this movie, I knew exactly where it was going from the onset. Twelve votes. Eleven for the death penalty, one against. Well… come on. It’d take an idiot to not figure out the setup for this particular movie. One vote against, and it’s clear that one by one, the no votes will fall as Juror #8 systematically raises questions about the knife, the witnesses, the motive, etc., etc. One by one, all the details spinning on their head. “I’m just saying it’s possible,” “Well sure, but not probable!” And, at the thirty minute mark, Juror #8 proposes a secret vote… if all eleven vote guilty, he won’t stand in the way of a guilty verdict. And sure enough, he gets one not guilty verdict. But I will say this… this is specifically, the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen in any movie ever:
How do these looping towel machines work? Do they just unspool until done, and then get washed? Sorry – sorry… I just … gack, I just got distracted there for a second. Horrifying. Agree with this guy’s politics, but not his hygiene at all! hahahah.
Where was I? Oh, yes, then, step by step, our Juror #8, he begins to do an infinitely better job dismantling the prosecution’s case in just a few hours than the defense did over the course of six days:
- The rare switchblade knife, was not rare at all. #8 found another knife just like it, a minute from the accused’s house.
- The El Train was flying by at the time of the killing, and the old man couldn’t have heard the young man yelling out, no matter how loud his proclamations.
- The old man who said he had heard the kid say, “I’m gonna kill you!” was desperate for esteem, desperate for recognition.
- The 18-year-old returned to the scene at 3am and captured by the police. Why?
- The old man said he made it to his front door in 15 seconds, but he had a limp, and the diagram of the apartment proved he couldn’t have made it there that quickly.
- The defendant was questioned about what movie he had just seen in the same apartment where his father lay dead… under that kind of emotional duress anyone could forget what movie they had just seen.
- Being shorter, it was more likely the kid would have used an underhand motion than an overhanded, down and in motion.
- The witness saw the murder personally. And that, through the windows of the El Train, she was able to see the murder – and yet she wore eye glasses. She probably wasn’t wearing glasses in bed.
Thoughts On the 12 Angry Men
“All these people that live in the gutter they don’t care about life as much as it means to us. I know it, I know all about them. There isn’t a single one of them that is any good. I’m speaking my peace, and listen to me. There’s a danger here, these people are dangerous here. These people are wild.”
Do you know the squiggly equal sign? This ~ ? It basically means the approximately equal. I needed approximately equal quote signs for that paragraph. It’d be nice if English invented the approximate quotes symbol. Just putting that out there. Regardless, It is pretty interesting how this movie flips prejudices back onto the people that have them. It’s like insta-karma. If only this sort of prejudicial boomeranging would happen in real life. To watch, in the span of a hundred minutes as a movie neatly dismantles these men, one by one, and shows their flaws and weaknesses so perfectly portrayed up against that screen. If I had a complaint against the movie it would be that it was too exactly wrapped up. Too predictable. Way too obvious in what it was setting out to do.
But it is a good overview of the hostilities that we have in America against people we do not know, opining horribly with assumptions and derision as we foist the “flaws” of this nation onto their backs. To hear this 1950’s movie talk about a better day, when kids respected their parents, tells me that kids have NEVER respected their parents! hahaha. I mean, if it wasn’t happening in 1957! They talk of a yesteryear when kids lived in a Nirvana-esque world of blissful acquiescence by the kids of the day… that taught me something very clear. And that is, every generation thinks that they were forced to behave, to respect, to listen. And as that generation grows up, they realize that this new generation isn’t listening or respecting. But that is just a trick of vantage point. As a child you see things through a different lens. Right? You see it blissfully perfect and nostalgically. But when you age, you realize the warts and flaws of the world, and its imperfections. It’s interesting.
I hear there is a more modern remake of this particular film. I’d be curious how they manage the ending. Personally, it’d be interesting to hear from the defendant afterwards. Or to let slip a detail the shows he’s actually guilty? hahaha. Anyone watch the newer version? Can’t imagine Hollywood remaking this great movie. I mean, why? Anyway, had a good time revisiting this one.
Edited by: CY
