Twelve Angry Men

One man refuses to succumb to prejudice so that twelve men can prevent a miscarriage of justice.

A blistering chacrater study and an examination of the American melting pot and the judicial system that keeps it in check, Twelve Angry Men holds at its core a deeply patriotic faith in the U.S. legal system. The play centers on juror Eight, who is at first the sole holdout in an 11-1 guilty vote. Eight sets his sights not on proving the other jorors wrong but rather on getting them to look at the situation in a clear-eyed way not affected by their personal prejudices or biases. Reginald Rose deliberately and carefully peels away the layers of artifice from the men and allows a fuller picture of them-and of America, at its best and worst-to from. After the critically accalaimed teleplay aired in 1954, this landmark American dramawent on to become a cinematic masterpiece in 1957 starring Henry Fonda, for which Rose wrote the adaptation. More recently, Twelve Angry Men had a successfuli, and award-winning, run on Broadway.