The Movie "12 Angry Guys"

The movie "12 Angry Guys" is about a murder trial embeded in the mid 1900's when the American legal system had extremely different rules from what it has now. The trial is about a 16 years of age boy who apparently murdered his dad late one night in New york city City. He was from a run-down neighborhood, with a history of issues with the law, including knife battles. The jury is comprised of twelve white males who are expected to ponder about the young boy's fate when he is Latino.

In the start of the motion picture it's really clear that eleven of the twelve jurors have currently chosen that he was guilty, the only one who said not guilty is juror number eight.

Juror number 8 believes that you can't send out someone to pass away without even talking about the case first. As the movie goes on they talk about the various parts of the case and one by one the jurors begin to change their vote to not guilty.

Get quality help now

Bella Hamilton

Verified writer

Proficient in: Film

5 (234)

“ Very organized ,I enjoyed and Loved every bit of our professional interaction ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

The very first thing they talk about is the knife that was used to eliminate the dad, then they talk about the time it took the only man on the flooring below to get to the door after he heard the body hit the floor.

After that they went on to deliberate more about previous things spoke about, until finally they talked about the females who in fact saw the eliminating through a passing L train. Among the jurors bears in mind that she had indents on the sides of her nose indicating that she used glasses, so they pertain to the conclusion that she couldn't of seen anything given that she wasn't using her glasses while lying in bed.

Once they lastly call for a last vote they pertain to the verdict of acquitting the young boy. All twelve jurors finally agree on the decision of not guilty.

Throughout the whole film there are many different dynamics at work among the 12 jurors. One of the primary characteristics is that the boy is Hispanic throughout a time when bigotry was a natural part of society. You can clearly see that bigotry, and stereotyping played a huge part when even before they began deliberating eleven out of the twelve jurors voted guilty. There wasn't a doubt in their minds that he didn't do it, they based that solely off of the fact that the offender was Hispanic. Having a all white jury for a trial with a Hispanic person as the defendant in the 1950's, without a doubt racism will play a major role in deciding weather condition or not he is guilty.

Another dynamic at play during this movie is that they are all in a group together giving them group mentality where they will be hesitant to speak out, or change their vote because they are self conscious of what other people will think about them. Throughout the movie there where many different things that influenced individual jurors and the jurors as a whole. In the movie 12 Angry Men there was an abundance of things that influenced individual jurors. One of the main things that influenced many of the jurors is racism because the defendant was Hispanic. One juror said “He’s an ignorant kid from a slum who doesn’t speak good English”.

That’s flat out racism, there’s no way around the fact that racism played a huge role in their decision making process. In the 1950’s racism was part of everyday life, it was socially accepted during that time. Another thing that influenced one of them was that he had baseball tickets to a game later that night so he was going to side with what ever got him out of their sooner than later. He was voting guilty all the way till it became a split between the jurors on weather he was guilty or not.

That shows that it affected his decision making process, because he was going to side with what ever side got him out faster. Another thing that influenced individual jurors is their fear to speak their minds, or side with the side they really think is the right one. In the beginning you could tell that some of the people were hesitant because they were afraid of what other people would think of them, that’s why they had to do a silent ballot in order to keep deliberating. There were other factors that affected the group as a whole in their decision making process. Different things affect the group than the individual jurors. The main thing that affected their decision making process is the extreme heat, the heat would make them want to get out of there as fast as possible, making them side with whatever side will get them out faster.

I know I can’t work right when I’m extremely hot, I get frustrated really fast and have no patients, I know I would want to get out as fast as possible. You can tell that it affects people because they snap at each other at the drop of a hat, and they were sweating the whole time till they turned on the light. Another thing that affected the group as whole was groupthink, which is the practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility. They will make decisions as a group so no one person can be blamed for whatever happens, people don’t like too much responsibility. Lastly another thing that helped sway their decision making process as a group is the fact that one person was trying to pressure other people into speaking, and pressuring them into siding with him.

The movie 12 Angry Men was about a trial during the 1950’s in which a Hispanic boy supposedly killed his father, and twelve white men deliberate to determine his fate. They start out 11 to 1, and one by one they change sides till they eventually acquit him of all the charges. Things like racism, baseball tickets, and fear of what other people think are a few things that affected their individual decision-making. Things like groupthink, the heat, and the fact that you would run out of patients at a certain point, and you would start to snap at each other at the drop of the hat. In my opinion I think this movie was really good and a good look into the American legal system, because it shows the changes that have been made from them to now.