Group Counseling

Title: Group counseling
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The film, 12 Angry Men, by Rose and Lumet (1957) is an American drama filmed in 1957 and it tells of a story of a twelve man-jury. The group is discussing on whether a defendant is guilty or should be acquitted on the basis of reasonable doubt. The movie is set almost entirely in a courtroom with only three minutes of the 96 minutes movie being set at the steps of the court room and in the washroom as noted by Russ (2000). Given that in United States, jury`s verdict in criminal cases must be unanimous to either acquit or convict the defendant, the films demonstrates techniques that can be used in the process of building consensus as observed by Russ (2000). He further points out that building of consensus is a complex affair since members of the jury have different personalities.
The group of the 12 men is formed and that is tasked with responsibility of determining the verdict to be given in a case of a slum boy who is accused of stabbing his father to death. After the judge listens to the closing arguments in the cases, he instructs the 12 men jury to determine whether the boy was guilty of murdering his father reminding them that if their verdict will be that the boy is guilty, he will be sentenced to death as seen in film by Rose and Lumet (1957).
The twelve get down to work in a private room but apparently all the jurors except juror number 8 have already made up their mind that the boy is guilty from the onset and they thus wish to deliver their verdict as soon as possible without much deliberation. During the preliminary vote, Davis who is juror 8 votes in favor of the acquittal arguing that the boy is not guilty and further pointing that the case has serious repercussion on the boy. He feels that the evidence presented against the boy leaves reasonable doubt since the weapon used in the murder is a common pocketknife which he presented an identical one and at the time of the alleged murder, a train was passing at the scene. He therefore tried to convince the group to have a discussion before giving a verdict. Juror Number 7, a sales man is angered by his colleague`s vote given that he has tickets a baseball game that evening and prolonged discussion will ruin his evening as seen in the film by Rose and Lumet (1957).
The other jurors in the film have different characters with juror number one, who is also the head of the group, is preoccupied with his personal commitments but is accommodative to the others probably in an attempt to hasten the process of getting a consensus to enable him continue with his duties as a high school assistant football coach as constructed Rose and Lumet (1957). During the ninth round of voting he gets convinced that the boy is not guilty and votes for his acquittal. Juror number 2 is a humble bank clerk who during the initial stages of the deliberation is overshadowed by others members of the jury but gathers courage fast as the discussion progresses. He votes that the boy is not guilty during the third round as observed in the film by Rose and Lumet (1957). Juror 3 is a stubborn business man and a worried father. He is high tempered and is portrayed as the antagonist in the case as portrayed by Rose and Lumet (1957) probably since he feels that he could also be stabbed by his son. He is hard to convince and only votes for acquittal in the twelve round of voting as the last to change his mind. He is the last to get convinced that the boy is not guilty.
Rose and Lumet (1957) present juror four as a reasonable and composed stockbroker. He is also very analytical and tries to weigh the evidence adduced to delivery give his verdict. He fills persuaded the boy ...