Justice And Truth In Twelve Angry Men: Analysis And Interpretation

Part A

Introduction

The primary texts considered in this essay are the recognition of the right of the innocent, the reversal and the fatal flaws of the jury members in the film towards the recognition of the truth. Performed and written in the year 1954, the film “Twelve Angry Men” was finally released in the theatres on 1957. The film offered a portrayed allowing towards the exploration and identification of the evil of the indifferences that are more powerful and pervasive in nature. The film, 12 angry men is famous for its illustration of a highly charged deliberation of the jury (Marder 887). The film is furthermore recognized for its pure and fine ensemble casts that includes Henry Fonda. The entire setting of the plot of the film was at a single, stark room opening and illustrating the scenario of the jury towards the receiving of the final information and the instructions from the judge before the escorting by bailiff in the jury room. The essay argues and explains the context of the justice or the truth that has been addressed in the film, Twelve Angry Men.

Body

On this particular film, the scene of the jury explains the microcosm of the society. Furthermore, the film showed how the jurors who are generally cut off from the remaining of the society are furthermore charged with heavy tasks for the decision regarding the conduction of the deliberations.  Through out the American courtroom drama several of the exploration has been done context of the techniques of consensus building, difficulties encountered in the procedure among the individuals among the personalities and conflict interests (Rose 17).

The film portrays an incident in the context of the deliberation of the jury members in the case of the capital murder. The synopsis of the film explains the scenario following the closing arguments in the trail scenario of the murder. The twelve of the members of the jury acted to be reluctant and deliberate with the issue of the verdict that meant the death for the teen of the inner city who was held as the accused. The film furthermore showed a dozen of men who are trying to reach unanimous decisions while sequencing of the jury room (Hale 3). The scenario furthermore illustrates the rise of the personal issues that threatens the conflict towards the derail of the process for the effective decisions of the fate of the victim.

Body

For addressing the questions of justice and truthfulness as shown in the fil, it can be stated that the context of justice has been portrayed in twelve angry men in a vulnerable platform. The notion of justice has been shown to have achieved in the film after a long deliberation and usage of the charisma by juror 8 together with the powers of persuasion towards the convincing the innocence of the defendants.  The film portrays Juror 8 stating that “There are no secrets in a jury-room”( Ali 10). The confidence, the subtle force displayed by the juror in the film allowed the narrow and the rigid minds of the other jurors to get broadened. It is only because of him; the film saw the context of the justice and truthfulness presented over the scenario.

One of the comments of judge in this particular context was:

“Murder in the first degree…premeditated homicide…is the most serious charge in our criminal courts.”( Grossi and Fernando 2).

The film furthermore portrays how the judge did not actually made any issues regarding the fact of the murder as the first-degree crime for charging anyone as criminal. He said the above for the reason that his verdicts can insist all the jurors regarding the seriousness and their responsibility towards making sure that the trial in the film plot concludes in a proper and justified note propagating the notion of justice for the case in discussion.

The context of justice and judgements has been in stake in the scene where juror 3 said the following before the jury room:

“You come in here with your heart bleeding all over the floor about slum kids and injustice but you make up these wild stories, and you’ve got some soft-hearted old ladies listening to you”( Price, 20).

The comment portrays the view of juror 3 which was kind of similar to juror 10 who thinks that the men in the room are some of the soft hearted dumb people believing on any of the sob stories that are being discussed. The film portrays how the juror 3 depicted his though regarding the true meaning of justice according to him which mean to be hard or tough over the individuals and believing together with the assumption of  the worst regarding them in case of the serios charges and allegations like murder.

To summarize, the twelve angry men is a play that portrays the deliberations of a jury in the trail of a murder crime and explaining the idea of the justice in the conclusion of the film. One of the critics for the movie is that the film does not clearly present the system of the American criminal justice or the concept of the justice as something clear or simple (Burnett and Diane 385). The film from the very beginning portrays on how the motivation of the jurors and their conceptions regrading justice are directly influenced by their experiences and rationally of their personalities. The essential abiding message from the context of justice that has been portrayed in the film is that the notion of justice can not be taken for granted. In case the society and the legal system of the nation seeks justice, it is important to prepare and stand and fight for it just like the juror 8 in the film who stood for the truth and convinced the other members together with the judge to provide justice to the defendant in the court. This is because,

Portrayal of Justice and Judgments in the Film

“Justice is not absolute; it is relative” (Ali 4)

Thus, it can be concluded that justice is being served in the film Twelve angry men portrayed in the courthouse of the New York City. The film illustrates the scenario how the fate of a young man relied on the hands of the jurors who raised the charges against him towards stabbing his father.  The film explained the various responsibilities of the jury towards impartial decisions, fair decision making, identification of guilt and to give justice to the arisen situation. The film portrays how justice and the truth has been addressed effectively.

The primary text considered in this essay is the realism (social problem play).

In the book “Approaching Genre”, John Frow argues the fact that the genre is basically the set of the highly organised and conventional constraints towards the production and the interpretation of the meanings. The word constraint used by the author doesn’t portray genre as a simple restriction. The book highlight genre as a structuring impact that are productive regarding the meanings, their guidance, shape. Genres are similar to the way forms are given to pour of a concrete and sculptors shapes to its materials. The structures of the genre both restricts and enable meanings. The theory of genre is regarding the ways in which various structures and ways by which various meaning and truth are being produced in the form of talking, writing, filming, painting and acting (Derrida 232).  The author in his book portrays how the concept of the controls and the restriction of the genres includes no speaking or writing or any of the symbolically organised actions by the development and the shaping of the generic codes (Frow 13). The work or the function of genre is to mediate among the social situations and the text realising the certain features of the situation. The primary text related to realism (social problem play) resist the control of genre as depicted by the author in his book by the litearary movements that originated and developed in the mid of the 19th century. Realism or the social problem plays presents the social issues and the problems of the society in a more realist way. In the context of the English literature, the control of genre is resisted by the problem play which is basically the type of drama for dealing with the controversial issues in the society in a much more realistic manner. These furthermore expose the social ills, the stimulation of the thoughts and the discussion in the part of the audiences (Guleff 218). The control of genre that is being resisted by realism fails to shape the strategies that genre offer in getting certain kind of work done. This is because, genre is not an action or a performer and is basically a typified action and a structural kind. The central arguments of the book by the author depicts that far from being a mere stylistic devices, the genre develops the impact of the reality and the truth which possess as the central towards various ways the world is understood for the illustration of the history, science or philosophy or in daily communication. The author in this book illustrates genre as formal structures which works as a level of semiosis that is forceful and deeper than the explicit context of the discussed text (Frow 23). The law of the genre encircles on the participation without the belonging and taking part without the membership of ser. The summary illustrates the context of realism which acts as the resistance towards the control of genre.

Reference

Marder, Nancy S. “The Banality of Evil: A Portrayal in 12 Angry Men.” Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 82 (2007): 887.

Rose, Reginald. Twelve Angry Men. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016:14-37

Hale, Dennis. Jury in America. University Press of Kansas, 2016:1-9

Grossi, Davide, and Fernando R. Velázquez-Quesada. “Twelve angry men: A study on the fine-grain of announcements.” International Workshop on Logic, Rationality and Interaction. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2009:1-14

Price, Steven. “Commentary.” Twelve Angry Men, Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2017, pp. 15-37. Print. [n.b. this is not the entire Price “Commentary”; rather it covers all sections from “Characterization, Themes and Structure” to (but not including) “The Afterlives of Twelve Angry Men”.

Burnett, Ann, and Diane M. Badzinski. “An exploratory study of argument in the jury decision?making process.” Communication Quarterly 48.4 (2000): 380-396.

Ali, Mohammed Abdo Nasser. “12 Angry Men: A Legal Perspective.” Al-Fikr Al-Shurti 78.3869 (2016): 1-24.

Frow, John. “Approaching Genre.” Genre, Routledge, 2006, pp. 6-28. Print.

Guleff, Virginia. “Approaching genre: Prewriting as apprenticeship to communities of practice.” Genre in the classroom: Multiple perspectives (2002): 211-23.

Redfern, Nick. “Quantitative methods and the study of film.” Conferenza presso la University of Glasgow. 2014.

Derrida, Jacques. “The law of genre.” Acts of literature. Routledge, 2017. 221-252.