Last night, I watched 12 Angry Men. I’ve seen it before, but it’s a film I return to from time to time–it’s a gripping drama, concerning jury deliberations in a death-penalty case. At the time of its release (1957), it was critically acclaimed, and it was also nominated for three Oscars.
The film has two rather unusual characteristics. First, no names are used during deliberations–the jurors refer to themselves by number, the defendant is only known as “the boy,” and the witnesses are known as “the old man” and “the lady across the street.” We only learn the names of two jurors, and those are revealed only in the last minute of the film.
But what has always struck me is the second characteristic, which is best summed up in the Wikipedia entry for the film:
And that’s about it: the film takes place in one room, and consists mainly of people arguing, cajoling, talking, and so on. There are no special effects, action heroes, or supervillians; and there is only a little unobtrusive music to add to the atmosphere.
But given many of the film discussions here, many of which concern action-adventure pictures, or special-effects-laden science-fiction movies, I’m wondering: how would 12 Angry Men, or something similar, be received today? Is it too dull for today’s audiences, or would it still have critical and popular appeal?
Made now, they would “open up” the play. Flashbacks. Dramatic recreations of the situations being debated. More business in the courtroom itself. They wouldn’t have faith in the material to support itself without additional bells & whistles.
If they tried to make it today, some asshole would immediately link to the Cracked page that calls it “one of the most illegal trial verdicts in cinema history.”
A large part of the unity of place stems from the fact that it was written as a play, not as a movie. It makes things a lot easier on stage if you never need to change the set.
Frankly, I’m kind of surprised it hasn’t been remade. Even if it wouldn’t rake in the big bucks that the summer blockbusters do, the expenses would be minimal, so it should be very easy to turn a profit on. Really, the only expense of any significance would be the actors, and there are only 12 of them total, no cameos, no walk-ons, no extras. And most of those 12 you could fill with up-and-coming no-name actors willing to work for little more than the chance at exposure. It’s made even easier by the fact that they’re so nonspecific: You could use an actor of any appearance, nearly any age, and even any sex, for all of the roles.
That’s the problem, the material isn’t all that good. You have a lot of people sitting around reminiscing and chewing the fat about things that aren’t remotely related to the facts or evidence of the case. It is the typical hectoring, lecturing fare you get from Hollywood and it is a rather inartful example of even that. Admittedly, I didn’t make it through the entire movie. I turned it off about the point I would have left the jury room to get the bailiff to tell him no one was taking their responsibilities seriously.
And yeah, as someone else indicated TV series often do episodes where the characters are on just one set when they have used up too much of their budget. This is especially true in Science Fiction where the budgets get strained and it is better to have one good set than to have a bunch of bad sets or effects. A lot of sitcoms like Cheers or Married With Children take place in one or two rooms for their entire run. It seems to be more common than not for that genre. I guess that is why there are so many of them… they are cheap to make.
Actually, if I’m interpreting what Wikipedia says correctly, it was written as a teleplay (i.e. the original version was for TV, not for the stage or the big screen).
I can think of four other movies that take place almost entirely in a single building or on its grounds, though not in a single room. The first three are all based on stage plays, the fourth on a novel.
The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) - the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam
Stalag 17 (1953) - A barracks and adjacent yard in a POW camp with at least one scene in the commandant’s office
The Lion in Winter (1968) - A castle in France
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969) - a dance hall, with some brief flashback exterior scenes and brief flash-forward scenes in a courtroom
Other films with a single set: The Boys in the Band
Lifeboat
Rope
Rear Window
Russian Ark (though the “set” is the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, so there’s a lot of movement).
More recently, Proof takes place in a house (though more than one room is shown), and Doubt in a Catholic school (again, more than one area of the school is shown).
I am sorry I wasn’t clear. I was not doubting that we have the talent to carry this movie off using current actors. I was just wondering who would be cast. Maybe this would be an interesting thread