black and white films are so good for telling stories colour distracts you Henry Fonder what else can i say.

What I found compelling is that nearly the entire movie takes place in the jurors room and as you are watching you actually feel a bit confined and trapped. It's so well made that I actually felt uncomfortable. Can you fix that damn fan, it's hot as hell in here! I was reading on wikipedia that Lumet intentionally made the shots tighter as the film progressed and by the end they are all near closeups. His reasoning was to make the audience feel the claustrophobia of the jurors stuck in that room. -It worked.

The script and the actors do a great job bringing the outside world in to that room. In fact, it's as though each character represents an aspect of the outside world. From left to right in the photo here: 1. The middle class fast talking salesman 2. The well-to-do financier 3. Blue Collar 4. Meek family man 5. Henry Fonda (everyman) 6. Bitterness of generations past 7. Madison Ave materialism 8. The thoughtful immigrant 9. the Coach 10. Wisdom of generations past 11. The poor

12. This is what makes this image/scene so strong. They are all staring at the camera looking at the "Angry" juror. He has so much contempt in his heart, anger and bitterness from something unrelated to this trial but he projects it in to all aspects of his life. In this scene we, for a moment are made to be him. They're all looking at me. Pretty strong stuff.

I have never been on a jury. When I was 18 I was dismissed for whatever reason but haven't been asked since. I'd welcome the responsibility though, knowing it would likely be nothing like this.

As for Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, it's hard for me to even write about it in the same comment. Just no where near as good of a film. I may be old fashioned in this sense, but I like a film to have at least one redeemable character and I can't find one in BtDKYD.