“The sense of increasing claustrophobia…”: Sidney Lumet’s Iconic Film ‘12 Angry Men’ Proves Why It Resonates With the Audience Even 67 Years Later
- Sidney Lumet is rightfully considered one of the greatest filmmakers to have ever existed.
- His debut feature film 12 Angry Men has the kind of cinematography that still hooks the audience 6 decades later.
- His intentions behind making the movie were simple as he only wanted a break as a filmmaker.
Sidney Lumet is widely known for raising awareness about societal issues through his movies. He was different in a way that made him important in the cinema as well as in society since his thought-provoking movies raised real questions about the societal system and authority and shed light on the struggles of the working class.
One of his movies that still resonates with the audience is 12 Angry Men, released in 1957. Besides the fact that it was Lumet’s debut as a filmmaker, there is another interesting fact about the film and it is that the entirety of it was shot in a single room. The brilliance with which it was filmed is one of the primary reasons why people still admire it.
Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men Is a Masterpiece That Goes Beyond His Masterful Filmmaking Skills
Sidney Lumet initially began his career as an actor, but it was interrupted by the breakout of World War II. This led to him enrolling in the US Army. After serving the country for four years, he became involved in the industry again, but this time from behind the cameras. He started his directorial career with Off-Broadway productions and soon evolved into a TV director.
Lumet’s 12 Angry Men is the big-screen adaptation of the eponymous CBS live play. It is a courtroom drama that follows a tense jury of 12 men deliberating the conviction of a teenager charged with murder. The film earned three Academy Award nominations including Best Picture.
In the published memoir about his life in film, Making Movies (via X), the film’s cinematographer Boris Kaufman detailed how he used shooting in a single room to his advantage by using what he called ‘lens plot’.
He explained that he shifted to longed lenses as the filming proceeded to make it seem as if the 12 characters were trapped in there. So, by the final third of the film, it was not just the walls that were closing in, but also the ceiling.
The sense of increasing claustrophobia did a lot to raise the tension of the last part of the movie.
For the final shot in which the jurors are leaving the courtroom, Kaufman used a wide-angle lens and raised the camera above eye level to give the sense of breathing room after two very confined hours in that room. It is this brilliant cinematography that the audience still considers it one of the greatest classics ever made.
Sidney Lumet’s Intentions Behind Making the Movie Were Simple
Some people strive for greatness, Lumet was great but he was not one of those people. His intentions throughout his career had been to make movies, and when people do what they love doing, they become great just like that.
The Dog Day Afternoon director’s intentions behind making 12 Angry Men were just as simple. When Daniel Anker interviewed him in 2008 for what was released as By Sidney Lumet, he said:
If you asked me specifically, ‘When you did ’12 Angry Men,’ were you interested in the justice system?’ Absolutely not, I was interested in doing my first movie, and I was very impressed that Henry Fonda wanted me as the director because he had seen something I had done off Broadway. It was the most obvious motive!
Lumet was aware of the movie’s impact on the law system of England but reiterated that his motive was not to change it. All he wanted to do was make a great movie, and he did exactly that.
12 Angry Men is available for streaming on The Roku Channel.
