1. 12 angry men
12 angry men is a noir film about 12 men on jury duty who must decide the fate of an 18 year old
man who is convicted of murdering his father. The movie shows many themes, the main ones being
justice, as the jury must bring justice to this man, deciding if he is not guilty, as well as doubt, as the
characters change their minds throughout the film due to gaining doubts, which they only achieve
after looking at the evidence properly. There is also some racism in their as there is a migrant worker
in the jury who gets some comments thrown at him. The migrant worker also shows the time the
films is released as racism was quite a big thing then, as was the amount of migrant workers who
went to America looking for the American dream. The film also uses quite a few conventions of noir,
such as smoking, suits, horizontal blinds, shadows, heavy rain and the use of murder.
The movie starts off in the corridors of a court, following multiple people with one tracking shot that
tracks several people, making the place appear busy. It then goes into the courtroom; here we first
see a long shot showing the jury and the judge. It then cut zooms to a close-up, which pans across
the jury, showing us their reaction as the judge speaks.
It then goes into the jury room, where the rest of the movie takes place. Pretty much the entire film
is shot in real time, meaning there are no time cuts, which highlights how long the process takes.
The main protagonist, who always thinks not guilty, is dressed in white, which represents purity. The
antagonist, who is the last to change his mind, is dressed in black, which represents evil and
corruption.
Throughout the movie we see the rest of the jury changing their minds to not guilty. Several
different shots are used to show this. When everyone else thinks guilty, a lot of wide shots and
close-ups on the protagonist are used, which makes the protagonist look singled out. We then see
grouped shots of the people who start to change their mind. By the end, when only the antagonist
thinks not guilty, there is a single shot of the antagonist. It then cuts to different group shots of the
other people, showing singularity to the antagonist. This split and join is also shown with the use of a
table, which is made up of 2 tables put together.
Once the jury leave the room, there is a high angle shot showing the protagonist outside. This makes
him appear weaker, showing that he is no longer a highly positioned person now he is no longer a
jury member and not of much importance.