"Twelve Angry Men" (1957)

Paper Summary:

This paper explains how the film shows members of a jury interact and make decisions, which would be true for juries in business cases as well as criminal cases. The film also portrays some of the social forces that affect the way businessmen operate and direct their businesses. One social topic discussed is how many of the jurors are businessmen who show their own prejudices against certain minority groups and poor people, attitudes which would affect how they hired, how they marketed, and how they conducted business at all levels.

From the Paper:

"The characters are not given names but only numbers, their juror numbers, but they are individualized by their attitudes, their approach to the task at hand, and their prejudices as brought out during their discussions with one another. The film tells of one particular jury deliberating a murder case in which a young man from the slums is accused of stabbing his father to death. Juror Eight is the only one who votes not guilty because he has some reasonable doubts, while the other eleven jurors want to convict and go home. Deliberations continue as the eleven try to convince the one. The fact that the one is holding out forces the jurors to discuss the issues and to analyze the case more deeply than they were inclined to do so in the first place. Ultimately, Eight changes the minds of everyone, even the final holdout, Number Three, and the jury votes "Not Guilty." "

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