12 Angry Men

12 Angry Men (1957) takes place almost entirely in one room and runs ninety seven minutes. When people talk about doing a great deal with very little, this is the film they mean. A jury has to decide the fate of a young man accused of killing his father. Eleven vote guilty, one is not sure. The film is not really about that one man persuading the others. It is about each of the other eleven having to look at what they brought into the room with them. This was Sidney Lumet's first feature and it hides a technique in plain sight. As the film goes on the camera lenses get longer and the camera drops lower. The room never changes but the walls seem to close. It works even if you never notice. Noticing makes it better. Every juror is a man and almost none of them are named. They are numbers. That is deliberate too. Good for: courtroom drama, dialogue driven films, classic Hollywood. There is no action and the tension never lets up anyway. It holds up well with a teenager and gives you something to argue about afterwards. Less good for: anyone who finds black and white single location films hard going.