Classic Film & Conversation: 12 Angry Men – with Carolyn Anderson (Senior Symposia)

In this gripping drama directed by Sidney Lumet twelve men struggle to reach a verdict in a murder trial in a New York City jury room on “the hottest day of the year.” Henry Fonda plays a principled holdout who urges his fellow jurors to reconsider the evidence. A volatile Lee J. Cobb portrays the juror most resistant to the constitutional demand of a presumption of innocence. Although a commercial failure in 1957, the film, with its emphasis on the importance of reasoned argument in a democratic legal system, has accumulated recognition over the decades to the point that it was ranked 23rd best American film of all time in a 2002 poll.