12 Angry Men Movie Critique
...ered the room asking each other questions about their occupations, families, and interests. It was very clear that Juror #7 was a big baseball fan and made mention of the game trying to see how many of the other men might share his interest. The men were expressing their social identity and proclaiming self-efficacy in being proud of their interests and beliefs. The Attribution Theory was also applied by all of the men as well when they took the first vote of whether or not the defendant was guilty or not guilty. Each juror had his own explanation of why the defendant might have behaved the way he did while committing the murder and after committing the murder. The jurors attributed the defendant’s behavior or the outcome of the event either to internal dispositional or external situational causes. This was demonstrated when one of the jurors called the defendant “slum” and assumed that it was the defendant’s upbringing that made him commit the crime blaming it on an external situational cause. The jurors in the beginning of the film also expressed conformity. The size of the group may have been a factor when considering conformity of the jurors giving a guilty vote early in the film. It is difficult to be a minority of one, but it is easier to stand up for something if you can find someone else to stand up with you. Solomon Asch and other researchers found that three to five people will elicit much more conformity than just one or two. The field experiment done by Milgram and his colleagues showed how group size can influence conformity. The experiment was done by using one to ten people pause on a busy New York City sidewalk and look up. The percentage of people who passed by that also looked up increased as the number looking up increased from one to five persons. One juror in particular stands out in my mind and that was Juror #10. He had allergies and sneezed a lot at the beginning. This juror demonstrated cohesive behavior because through out the movie he kept saying “we” and “them” referring to the eleven other jurors as opposed to the rest of the world and the defendant. He used those words thinking that the rest of the jurors would feel associated with him and not relate to the defendant. I believe he was also the one that called the defendant “slum” and Juror #5 became offended. He also expressed prejudice by saying “those people” when referring to the defendant. The channel of communication from the attorney to the jury was not seen in the film but the jury did make mention of reasons why the district attorney might not have presented some of the evidence. The attorneys being the communicators in the story were not portrayed therefore no judgment of credibility or attractiveness could be made toward the attorney’s to the audience viewing the film. Maybe the prosecuting attorney gave more of an appeal to the jury rather than the defense attorney and maybe that would explain why at first the jury had decided on an eleven guilty vote and to one not guilty vote. This is to be assumed since the actual attorney’s presenting the case were never shown in the movie. Throughout the film, Juror #8 played by Henry Fonda was the optimistic one of the group. His minority influence in the beginning of the movie developed him into the leader of the group toward the end. Our textbook described an effective leader as one being consistent. The study done by Charlan Nemeth (page 318 of our textbook) was similar to that of the character played by Henry Fonda. Charlan Nemeth planted a minority of two within a simulated jury and had them oppose the majority’s opinions, the duo was inevitably disliked and so was Juror #8 played by Henry Fonda. The other members of the jury viewed Henry Fonda as a troublemaker. Nevertheless, the majority acknowledged that the persistence of the two in Nemeth’s study did more than anything else to make them rethink their position. This was very relevant to Henry Fonda’s character in that throughout the movie he presented evidence such as the matching switchblade knife as to the one used in the murder. He acted out the scene of the old man’s testimony by using a c...