Twelve Angry Men

 Twelve Angry Men has much to recommend it for. Cast, staging, cinematography and story. Cinema and theater in one.

 Twelve people in a room to decide a capital murder case. One man stands against twelve. The enduring greatness of the movie, of course, is that there is nothing false about the movie. The story is still played out today. It was just played out this week in a similar way when one juror stood up against eleven others against the death penalty here in chicago. It must not have been a tea party.

 This first clip of the old man has various shades and colors of shame and humiliation. The old man is wise and is given his chance to speak. What is always striking to me about this type of truth is how one, obvious it is and two, of course, how immediately it is shot down.

 The monologue starts with one person of age observing another. He notes his dress. He is speaking of the State witness against the accused murderer. He notes that his clothes are worn. He says  "To come to court like that .. he was dragging his left leg....and trying to hide it because he was ashamed." He is saying the man is humiliated  by his station in life.  He goes on to say "It is a very sad thing to be nothing." What is more humiliating than to be nothing? " "A man like this needs to be quoted just once."
 
Then a juror chimes in and says.
 
"Wait a minute you telling me that he would lie just to be important once?" To which the old man said, "No, he would not really lie."

 Now is this complicated and fascinating but oh so common and mundane in all our common conversations.

 Between lies so much!

 First of all the juror that is interrupting obviously has missed the whole point of what the old man has said.

 Second the old man is caught of guard and we wish he could address the interruption in some solid way but he retorts in a similar fashion stating that the witness convinced himself that he saw what he saw. To this the interrupting juror harshly and humiliating says that he has never heard anything so fantastic. Note then the shame response in the old man (his head goes down and the eyes are averted) and he is silent.