12 Angry Men(1957)

In grad school, one of my program's professors had a class on Leadership™️. Every semester she taught this class, she would spend one lecture on leadership lessons™️ exhibited by characters in film. The cohort before us watched 12 Angry Men for that lecture in 2019. My class did not watch this film so I missed out on the opportunity to view this film like how most other people I know watched this film, by being told to do so in some class. I had to catch up at home this evening.

The ideas in this film are not quite as revolutionary anymore. Well actually, are they? I am not so sure these days. The plot direction is predictable. However, the writing itself is so strong that even though you kind of know ahead of time that the jury would eventually turn, the way it happens still surprises you and keeps you engaged. This works brilliantly in tandem with the message of the film. I mean, there are no notes on the execution.

I do feel like my rather cynical view of American institutions has blunted how I received its message. All the things that make me think are still how the story was perceived at the time and how a similar trial would unfold now. The film was made in 1957. Would a jury in 2026 do better than them? Is that a reflection of the state of the institutions? Does it matter? It's one thing to watch a great story from seven decades ago point out the flaws in the justice system and another to be like 70 years later everything feels worse and people are even more jaded. Maybe I'm only projecting, hopefully.

By the way, in our class instead of this, we watched Black Panther. This was 2020.