12 Angry Men (1957) is a drama directed by Sidney Lumet about twelve jurors who are tasked with rendering an unanimous verdict on a criminal case—premeditated murder in the first degree, which means the death penalty for the accused if they find him guilty.
Life Lesson:
“Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom.”
— George Iles (1852-1942)
Movie Scene:
Juror #8 (Henry Fonda): I don’t have anything brilliant. I only know as much as you do. According to the testimony, the boy looks guilty. Maybe he is. I sat there in court for six days listening while the evidence built up. Everybody sounded so positive. You know, I began to get a peculiar feeling about this trial. I mean nothing is that positive. There are a lot of questions I would have liked to ask. I don’t know, maybe they wouldn’t have meant anything, but I began to get the feeling that the defense counsel wasn’t conducting a thorough enough cross-examination. He let too many things go by. Little things.
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