Cinematography in Films

12 Angry Men (1957)

When it comes to commercial film-making camera work or rather cinematography is pretty extensive. With various camera set-ups and other technical equipment, people forget the art of minimalist film-making and the classic 50’s courtroom drama 12 Angry Men is the finest example of one.

Sidney Lumet’s debut feature film had amazing camera work. The most brilliant aspect is how the most production and filming takes place just in one room where the jurors beg to differ in their opinions. The film has simple but clever script for a courtroom drama. With not much heavy production it still is one of the best courtroom dramas.

The film is one of the most intense yet slow-boiling drama which is the result of perfect dialogue delivery and heated performance by all 12 actors. A major id to the film was cinematography by Boris Kaufman.

The opening shot is of grand classical courthouse room. The camera swoops through its architecture and follows people through its corridors finally to the jury. It is soon revealed only white-suit clad Juror no. 8 (Henry Fonda) takes a ‘non-guilty’ stance against all other jurors.

What we notice in the film is that lot of the tension in the script is created by the craft of cinematography. The camera work along with lighting is very tactfully used. The script slowly builds up with Juror 8 claiming the boy accused of murder to be innocent later convincing all the jurors in the end including the most stubborn and prejudiced ones. The weather also plays a huge role in the script which gets hotter and hotter as the tension grows and the day passes by.

We see more wide- angle shots in the beginning and later the shots become closer to the jurors’ faces imploding their emotion and the tension of the situation.  Later the lens is completely focused on jurors’ faces filling the whole frame increasing the proximity and brimming tension. The script peels off as each man loses his clothing with boiling heat. When finally all jurors agree as non-guilty the film breaks of with showing us the outside of the courtroom again. 

The cinematography of this film is what makes it so great in spite being as simple as to being majorly shot in one room.  The film is shot in thirds’ to depict various mood and emotions in the situation with the first third being shot above the eye-level, then at the same eye-level and in the end below the eye-level. This aided in showing anger and tension of the film through its course.