12 Angry Men

1957.

Unlisted / #87

Nominated for 3 Academy Awards.

Juror #8 (Henry Fonda) convinces the other eleven jurors to re-consider their guilty verdict of a young Puerto Rican man accused of murdering his father.

Eddie: I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Ninety-two percent of it takes place in one room, but Sidney Lumet and Boris Kaufman manage to photograph it in a fresh way, so you never feel like they got lazy and stuck a tripod in the corner of the room. The dolly moves really keep the movie's pace alive. The writing is also superb. In a room with twelve characters, it's difficult to flesh out each one, but Reginald Rose manages to give us a clear sketch of each (angry) man. In terms of palpable drama, this is up there with any of the best, but my guess is that it made the AFI list because of its star power - Lumet and Fonda, especially.

Sarah: The first time I saw this movie I thought it was borrrrriiiiinnng. I wasn't looking forward to watching it again for our challenge. However, things improved the second time around.

Despite the inherent narrative obstacles of the film (one location, no real character names, talking about a character who appears only for a few seconds), thanks to the crafty writing of Reginald Rose, the movie still has emotional arcs and relationships. Each juror is well-defined. I especially liked the quiet Juror #5 (Jack Klugman, playing opposite of his famed TV role as Oscar Madison), and timid Juror #2 (John Fiedler, but you might know him as Piglet).

Even though I've grown to appreciate this film I still think it's an on-the-nose fable. I prefer the homage to the film that HAPPY DAYS did. It's much shorter, and the Fonz gets to be Henry Fonda.

Why You Should See It: As the jury stands deadlocked at 9-3 in favor of acquittal, Juror #10 (Ed Begley) launches into a bigoted tirade about Puerto Ricans. One by one, the jurors stand up and turn their backs to him. It's one of the few times that the camera is locked off, and the result is stunning. Finally, Juror #4 (E.G. Marshall) tells him, "I have [listened]. Now sit down and don't open your mouth again." Yeah. Fuck racism.

Network

1976.
#66 / #64
Winner of 4 Academy Awards.

After the UBS network informs its nightly news anchor Howard Beale (Peter Finch) that he will be fired in a couple weeks, he goes crazy on live television, which earns him his own network show. When Beale begins to decry UBS's parent company CCA, the chairman of CCA convinces Beale that capitalism is key. Finally, Beale is assassinated by a terrorist group in order to provoke interest in their network variety show, "The Mao Tse-Tung Hour."

Eddie: How have we not already reviewed this movie? NETWORK is the most prophetic of all of the films on the AFI list. I wonder if director Sydney Lumet watches television today and thinks to himself, "If we had put this shit in our movie back then, no one would have believed it." In an era where Anderson Cooper has to interview The Bachelorette and Fred Thompson has to quit his TV show to run for president, it's startling to believe that there was ever an America that didn't so closely infuse news and pop culture. NETWORK, produced just as television was jumping the shark in search of higher ratings, accurately predicted the depths to which television has sunk.

Sarah: As Eddie said, this movie is eerily modern. I think it only becomes more relevant as time goes by. This was one of the biggest surprises on the list for me. I had seen the famous "I'm mad as hell" scene, so I thought I knew what I was in for. But I did not.

Not only is the movie prophetic, but it is also unconventional. It does not follow contrived story arcs. It continually goes for the unexpected, and never gets hollywood on you - which is admirable since it's key theme is selling out. With all the commercialism in films, I don't think we'll get another film like NETWORK, so you must see it. Plus you can't miss Faye Dunaway as the manipulative unfeeling skeleton, Dianne Christensen. Or the scene where Max Schumacher (William Holden) tells his wife (Cindy Grover) he is leaving her. Amazing performances.

Why You Should See It: The Board Room Scene where UBS Chairman Arthur Jensen (Ned Beatty) tells Beale:

There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.

True then and truer today.