In the late 1940’s until the early 1950’s America was run by fear. The second Red Scare was running through the streets of America, an effect of the Cold War. A person could be found a Communist with little more than hearsay against them. A senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, and the head of the FBI at the time, J. Edgar Hoover, would become infamous for many questionable treason trials and guilty verdicts. The 1957 movie 12 Angry Men focuses on the Judicial System of the United States and reassures the people that it does work.
The main ideal of the movie 12 Angry Men is reasonable doubt. According to Dictionary.com, reasonable doubt is the “uncertainty as to a criminal defendant 's guilt” (dictionary). In the opening lines of the movie the judge makes sure that the jury knows what is at stake. If the jury finds the 18 year old kid, as he is referred to throughout the movie, guilty then he will be sentenced to death without chance of mercy. This …show more content…
In 1947 Hollywood adopted the Waldorf Agreement. The Waldorf Agreement was signed by all the major studios and required them to not hire Communists. This became known as “blacklisting”. Blacklisting in Hollywood lead to workers in Hollywood turning on each other, naming names so they could get back to work.
12 Angry Men deals with the idea of a fair trial. The two sides in the deliberations of 12 Angry Men represent what had become the two sides in the American Justice System. The lone man that refuses to vote guilty, Juror 8, is the way of the people or the way as intended. The main man of the other side, Juror 3, represents what the justice system had become, a joke. During discussion Juror 3 points out that the kid is “guilty until proven innocent”, and that the kid had gotten a fair trial and cost the people a lot of money, which was “more than he
The main ideal of the movie 12 Angry Men is reasonable doubt. According to Dictionary.com, reasonable doubt is the “uncertainty as to a criminal defendant 's guilt” (dictionary). In the opening lines of the movie the judge makes sure that the jury knows what is at stake. If the jury finds the 18 year old kid, as he is referred to throughout the movie, guilty then he will be sentenced to death without chance of mercy. This …show more content…
In 1947 Hollywood adopted the Waldorf Agreement. The Waldorf Agreement was signed by all the major studios and required them to not hire Communists. This became known as “blacklisting”. Blacklisting in Hollywood lead to workers in Hollywood turning on each other, naming names so they could get back to work.
12 Angry Men deals with the idea of a fair trial. The two sides in the deliberations of 12 Angry Men represent what had become the two sides in the American Justice System. The lone man that refuses to vote guilty, Juror 8, is the way of the people or the way as intended. The main man of the other side, Juror 3, represents what the justice system had become, a joke. During discussion Juror 3 points out that the kid is “guilty until proven innocent”, and that the kid had gotten a fair trial and cost the people a lot of money, which was “more than he