Day 2: Twelve Angry Men

I started reading this screenplay on Wednesday, but I couldn't finish it until Thursday because life happened. And then I couldn't write the blog post about it until today because MORE life happened. Darn you, life.

So because it's been three days since I started this script, I'm going to keep my post about it brief. I'm ready to move on to something else, to be honest.

Twelve Angry Men

Reginald Rose, 1996

I've heard that this is supposed to be one of the greatest movies ever made. I've never seen it before and I didn't know anything about it going in. But after reading, I must agree with the general opinion. First off, the premise is great. The minimalism is a great restriction that allows for a lot of freedom to focus on the armature. Oh yeah, on that note.

Armature: Every man's opinion is important, or having an opinion is the right of man.

I'm not going to list off the seven steps because I'm lazy and tired and want to do something else. Sorry, blog.

I will say that the characterization was fantastic. Though I have yet to see any actor interpretation of the characters, they all had very clear and distinct personalities that I was able to keep track of fairly easily. Sometimes I had to revert to the brief character descriptions at the top of the script several times, but I figure that's fair for not having any visuals. The group dynamics were very well balanced.

Actually, you know the most fascinating part of this screenplay? Every single character changed by the end of it. Juror 5 found his voice and stuck up for himself. Juror 7 felt shame and gave up his attack. Juror 11 gained confidence in his opinions. I thoroughly enjoyed watching everyone work through all their doubts and change their minds. It was brilliantly believable.

The last thing I want to say is that I also love the ending. It ends really quietly. There's the climax with Juror 10 (or maybe it was 7, one of the two), the final discussions, and then the end decision. And then everyone just gets up and leaves without a word. This script doesn't make itself a bigger deal than it is. The action finishes, and everyone leaves and moves on. I have a lot of respect for that.

There are probably many more things I could say here, but I'm not really up for it. Maybe I'll write more on my next one, which I'll hopefully have time for tomorrow or Sunday.