12 Angry Men,by Sidney Lumet, may be the most radical courtroom drama in cinema history. A behind-closed-doors look at the American legal system that is as riveting as it is spare, this iconic adaptation of Reginald Rose’s teleplay stars Henry Fonda as the dissenting member on a jury of white men ready to pass judgment on a Puerto Rican teenager charged with murdering his father. The result is a saga of epic proportions that plays out over a tense afternoon in one sweltering room. Lumet’s electrifying snapshot of 1950s America on the verge of change is one of the great feature film debuts.
Extras
New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
Frank Schaffner’s 1955 teleplay of 12 Angry Men, from the series Studio One, featuring an introduction by Ron Simon, curator at the Paley Center for Media
Production history of 12 Angry Men, from teleplay to big-screen classic
Archival interviews with director Sidney Lumet
New interview with screenwriter Walter Bernstein about Lumet
New interview with Simon about writer Reginald Rose
Tragedy in a Temporary Town (1956), a teleplay directed by Lumet and written by Rose
New interview with cinematographer John Bailey about director of photography Boris Kaufman
Original theatrical trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by writer and law professor Thane Rosenbaum
