TALK ABOUT MOVIES

2004 Talk About Movies
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Contents © 2004
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

TALK ABOUT MOVIES
September 2004

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Directed by Sidney Lumet. Starring Henry Fonda, Ed Begley, E.G. Marshall. 1957, Black and White, English, 96 minutes, USA. Available at Hollywood Video.

Matthew: Fonda is your perfect juror. On the one hand, he has a heart for the accused. He says, ‘He’s probably guilty, but his life is at stake. I think we owe it to him to talk it out.’

Ernie: The death penalty is what drives him; it’s why he needs to be careful. He brings up circumstances — the abusive father, the harshness of the slums. The stockbroker, who’s portrayed as Fonda’s equal in intelligence, brings up circumstances in a different way.

Matthew: He says, “We know that slums are breeding grounds for violence.” He’s more “rational,” more detached. He has no heart for the boy. And while Fonda is empathetic toward the boy, he makes his case on intellectual grounds.

Ernie: The guy who’s down on kids keeps talking about bleeding hearts, but Fonda doesn’t quite go down that road.

Matthew: He’s not trying to mitigate the boy’s guilt. He’s trying to determine if the boy actually did it.

_{* * *}

Ernie: Was the idea that you’re supposed to have one of everybody in the jury room? You’ve got to expect that six guys are just going to blow with the prevailing wind, while the rest will have varying levels of mental and emotional involvement.

Matthew: Yeah — and I think they’re making the point that certain men, for whatever reasons, can’t be expected to be real citizens.