12 Angry Men!!

We recently formed a film buff group at office. The idea was to share movies that one watched and liked. To start with itself we got a good bunch of movies listed. One title, "12 Angry Men", caught my attention. The plot of the movie as listed @imdb interested me. I must admit, I loved my decision to watch it. It turned out a very good movie.

The plot is so simple; 12 men, a decision to take & a few hours in a closed room, that's it. Simple as it may sound, it did pack a lot of substance. 12 jury men are pushed to a room tasked with concluding a trial. The proceedings of the trial have, on the surface, put the guilt on the accused. The jury however has to take the final call, the catch being that it has to be unanimous in its' decision, a vote of 12-0 either way, guilty or not-guilty.

As the men enter the discussion room, they start with a 11-1 voting, guilty vs not-guilty. The only one to vote for the accused, when provoked, has no answer to prove the innocence of the accused. However, his conscience had pushed him to take time and deliberate on the possibilities of the accused not being guilty. Then starts the game [If I may call it so :)] of convincing and counter-convincing. I better not try to put the entire sequence here; I may not do justice to the movie.

The movie, I felt, is an unmatched demonstration of group dynamics. It could make a gem of training material for a how-to on group discussions. It had everything - the spectator without an opinion, the silent thinker not able to push his thoughts through to the group, a man able to contribute but restrained by his inferiority complex, the pragmatic arguer, the persuader and more. Its' unassuming portrayal of job responsibility and self respect is worth all appreciation. Its' portrayal of the effect of personal prejudices and interests on one's handling of situations is awesome.

In all, a wonderful movie. The fact that it was in black & white, for some reason, made me like it more. :)