Comfortable and Furious

Memorable Movie Scenes: Part 25

Movie: 12 Angry Men

This movie is one of the greatest classics ever made and is Sidney Lumet’s masterpiece. One thing that makes movies great is scintillating dialogue and memorable, riveting scenes. As the temperature rose and the deliberations dragged on, something was bound to give. What boiled over was the revelation of the vicious bigotry of juror # 10, played brilliantly by Ed Begley.

Never before has bigotry been more blatantly manifested on the screen, and never before has it been so devastatingly rejected. As the voting is swinging more and more towards acquittal, Juror #10 blows up, seeing that he is losing a chance to send one of “those people” (Hispanics) to the electric chair.

As his diatribe grows more and more unhinged, the other jurors get up, one by one and turn their backs on him. He falters, but tries to double down on his racial rant, spewing venom like a busted shit-pipe. There is finally just one juror at the table facing him, juror #4, played by E.G. Marshall. He implores juror #4 to listen to him.

“I have”, he says. “Now sit down and don’t open your mouth again”

He didn’t.


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