In 1957 there was a film entitled “12 Angry Men,’’ and it was a film about a son who supposedly, killed his father and the 12 men who are the jurors for the court case. Throughout the film, there is a lot of arguing and bickering but with the arguing, watchers learn more and more about all the characters and their views and beliefs and how they influence their votes. In the 1957 film, viewers learn the most about how jurors votes are shifted mostly by their, past experiences, unfamiliar knowledge, and their open minds. One of the most influential traits to change the jurors views is their past experiences with “slum boys.’’(Film) The jurors who had been influenced by the trait were jurors all but juror eight. As the movie went on, all the jurors had explained why they had a bad view on children from the slums. Juror number three is the one who is always thinking the worst of the boys from the slums. In the end of the movie he has a picture of a boy, his son, who is from the slums and makes him upset so he is trying to take out his anger toward his own boy on the boy on trial. All the other jurors except number eight, have a bad view of the slums because of the prominence of crime in the areas of the slums and they don 't see all the kids from the slums because they just see the bad kids that come from the areas. The jurors may not know all the children from this area so they will have a lack of knowledge. All the jurors, even eight, have a lack of knowledge compared to
When was the last time you had to convince someone to see things your way? I myself can remember in high school trying to convince my mom to let me spend the night out at my friend’s house to go to work the next morning. My job was in the same area that my friend lived in at the time. With the help of my sister to back me up, I was able to convince my mom letting me spend the night out for work. In the 1957 MGM film Twelve Angry Men, Mr. Davis relies on his core values of priorities, words, and personality to a quit the young man charged with murdering his father.
Jury duty is often regarded by most of society as a dull and tiresome obligation. Perhaps one would be inclined to change their assessment if jury duty meant you and eleven other men were the only thing standing between a boy and the electric chair. The teleplay Twelve Angry Men, written by Reginald Rose, tells the story of a 1950’s court case wherein a young man, under suspicion of murdering his father, faces the death penalty. The script centers around the twelve men of the jury as they decide whether or not the boy will live or die. As tensions start to run higher, the jurors get into intense arguments, sometimes letting outside biases overtake them.
Juror Five is a white man, also born in the slums, but no one assumes that he is a criminal because he is white. Through the statements of Juror Four, his partiality is shown towards people of lower socioeconomic status. His prejudice, based on the race and social status of the defendant, is something not taught, but intrinsic in his psyche. Through this characterization, Twelve Angry Men reveals the origins the
In the drama “12 Angry Men” by Reginald Rose, Juror 10 has a big impact on the play by finally bringing the 10 other jurors together, and having prejudiced views against people from the slums even though he is from the slums. Juror 10 has a big impact on the play by finally bringing most of the jurors to the same conclusion for the first time. In the play it says, “Well you don’t know about them? Listen to me! What are you doing?
People have been dealing with prejudice for centuries, but now, in our modern society, prejudice is not acceptable and is something to be fought from within. In the drama, Twelve Angry Men, the jurors must decide the verdict of a young man from the slums who was said to have killed his father, but certain jurors use their own personal bias in their argument. Jurors Three, Seven, and Ten all show prejudice for their own reasons, but they end up changing their vote, showing the audience that prejudice won’t work anymore. Juror Three had a kid who was violent and tough just like the suspect for the murder. Throughout the book, he shows prejudice against kids and simply wants the kid to get incarcerated.
I hate tough kids”(Rose 21). Juror 3 is showing unfair bias because he is trying to compare the kid on trial and his son saying they are all the same. He does not even know the boy that much and is already showing an unfair bias towards him because of his relationship with his own son and how much he reminds him of him. Juror 3’s bias stops him from seeing the boy as someone he has never met before into
12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose is a primary example of how bias can affect one’s decision-making. As the trial progresses, it is clear to the reader just how much bias can be used as an obstacle to justice. Throughout the course of the play, Reginald Rose illustrates how the prejudice of juror number 10, and the past of juror number 3 prevent them from trying the case logically and unbiasedly. Juror number 10 displays a major bias toward the defendant, which ultimately leads to a preconceived notion.
What is worth our attention in this movie is how in the beginning they are trying to convince each other to vote guilty. 11 juror voted guilty and only one voted not guilty. Their judgments were based upon either their past personal experience which created their thoughts and behavior or upon facts. Juror 8 represents the conscience. He stood up for his inner feelings that the accused young boy is innocent.
People act upon what they think. Within “12 Angry Men”, all of the jurors have an opinion but some voice their more than others. One juror in particular, Juror Ten, voices his opinion about the boy in question. Repeatedly throughout the play, Juror Ten makes many thoughtless and hurtful comments about a certain kind of people. It is clear that Juror Ten’s uncompromising belief that the accused is guilty is because of his dislike for the boy’s race.
Twelve Angry Men is in many ways a love letter to the American legal justice system. We find here eleven men, swayed to conclusions by prejudices, past experience, and short-sightedness, challenged by one man who holds himself and his peers to a higher standard of justice, demanding that this marginalized member of society be given his due process. We see the jurors struggle between the two, seemingly conflicting, purposes of a jury, to punish the guilty and to protect the innocent. It proves, however, that the logic of the American trial-by-jury system does work.
Our life experiences make our present, our values, our way of behaving and thinking. Although no one is perfect, we are prone to develop prejudice against those who are totally different from us. For most of the time, prejudice only affects us personally. But if an individual is given a power to be responsible for another person’s live or death, prejudice can turn into a deadly weapon.
‘Twelve Angry Men’ written by Reginald Rose, is based on the story of a jury who have to come together to determine the fate of a young boy accused to have murdered his own father. Initially, eleven of the jurors vote not guilty with one of the juror being uncertain of the evidence put before them. As the men argue over the different pieces of evidence, the insanity begins to make sense and the decision becomes clearer as they vote several other times. Rose creates drama and tension in the jury room, clearly exploring through the many issues of prejudice, integrity and compassion, in gaining true justice towards the accused victim. These aspects have been revealed through three character who are Juror 10, Juror 8 and Juror 3.
This process continues throughout the course of the movie, and each juror’s biases is slowly revealed. Earlier through the movie, it is already justifiable to label juror 10 as a bigoted racist as he reveals strong racist tendencies against the defendant, stating his only reason for voting guilty is the boy’s ethnicity and background. . Another interesting aspect of this 1957 film is the “reverse prejudice” portrayed by juror
From all of this, it can be seen that it is preferred for a juror to be open-minded. Summing up, Twelve Angry Men is a story about jurors with different personalities. From these personalities, we can see that the qualifying traits of a good juror is the willingness to uncover the truth, so that a valid and accurate conclusion is made, a compassionate heart, so that there is an indifferent view on the victims, leading to an unbiased opinion, and an open mind, so that one will be
The movie “Twelve Angry Men” illustrates lots of social psychology theories. This stretched and attractive film, characterize a group of jurors who have to decide the innocence or guiltiness of an accused murder. They are simply deliberating the destiny of a Puerto Rican teenaged boy accused of murdering his father. Initially, as the film begins, except the juror Davis (Henry Fonda), all other jurors vote guilty. Progressively, the jurors begin trying to compromise on a point that everybody agree because the decision of the jury has to be unanimous.