12 angry men

1. 12 Angry Men
12 Angry Men is an American courtroom drama adapted
from a teleplayof the same name by ReginaldRose. Two
movies were made- the first one was in 1957 and the second
one was in 1997. With the difference 40 years, the 1997
movie has a lot difference with the 1957 movie including
camera works, lighting and Mise -en –scene. There are lots of
similarities too.
Both the movies follow the same plot (A young boy is
accused of his father’s murder, 12 jurors take the decisionif
he is guilty or not) the character of the juries are the same.
Backstories of some of the jurors are same, for example- in
both movies juror#3 has some issues with his son and juror
#5 is from a violentslum. The professions of the jurors are
same in both the movies. The pattern of voting in favour of
not guilty is the same in both the movies.
In the 1957 movie, all the jurors were white men. However in
the second movie, the men were from different cast, race
and even countries. The 1957 movie was black and white and
the 1997 was in colour. In the 1957 movie the judge was a
man. But in the second movie we can see a female judge –
CynthiaNance. In the 1957 movie, the outside of the
courtroom is shown to build up the environment of the
movie, the second movie starts directly from the courtroom.
The characters from the old movie use a lot of swear words,

2. all of them smoke too. In the second movie none of them use
swear words nor smoke.
The main difference between the movies is that one of them
is black and white and the other one is in colour. It is a big
difference as lots of thing have changed over the years such
as cameras have become much better. So we can see a lot of
differences in the camera works.
There are a lot of difference between the movies counting
other stylistics codes as well. There are more still shots in the
old movie, the second movie has lots of camera movements.
At the beginning of the old movie, everything is shown from
the accused’s eye level. But in the new movie, everything is
shown from a high angle. Also there are lots of high angle
shots in the new movie. In the old movie the camera
graduallymoves lower and lower to make the room small
and claustrophobic.There are lots of close shots to show the
emotionsof the characters. They also show the sceptical
looks on their faces. It makes the audiencethink that they
are thinking about the facts. The most used camera
movements in the old movie are tilt, close shots rising and
lowering the camera.
Lighting is a key factor in the 19957 movie as it is not in
colour. When the film take plac4e it was the hottest day of
the year as shown in the movie, so to show the fact that it is
hot and everyone is sweating, the lighting playsan important
role. The old movie is black and white, so sweat drops in the
forehead or sweat pits are not clearly visible.So they use
lighting to make their forehead shiny, it makes the foreheads

3. look like watery. So it looks like they are sweating. Also in the
1997 movie, the lighting is kept low to create a somewhat
claustrophobicatmosphere inside the room as there are lots
of people inside a small room. The lighting went a bit lower
as it started raining at one point of the movie (both of the
movies)
The mise-en scene playsan important role to attract the
audience.In both versions of 12 Angry Men, Mise-en-Scene
playsa key role. The decoration is similarin both the movies.
The decorationsuch that the room looks like an old court
room ,it seems small as well, Also there aren’t lots of props in
the movie. Those used are quite simple like a pocket watch
or a map of the apartment of the old man, the switch knife is
the most important prop used by the characters in both the
movies,