Logic in Twelve Angry Men

I came across this essay by Joel Warren Lidz on logic and argument in the film "Twelve Angry Men." It originally appeared in the journal Teaching Philosophy.

Religious Allegory in Twelve Angry Men

Bruce L. Hay, Harvard Law School, has published "Charades: Religious Allegory in 12 Angry Men," in volume 82 of the Chicago-Kent Law Review (2007) as part of a symposium marking the 50th anniversary of the film 12 Angry Men.

Here is the abstract.

This essay, a contribution to a symposium marking the 50th anniversary of the film 12 Angry Men, shows that the film is an intricate, carefully constructed allegory of a series of stories from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. The essay offers some conjectures on the relation between the film's biblical subtext and its surface political themes.

Download the paper from SSRN here.

Papke on 12 Angry Men

David Ray Papke, Marquette University Law School, has published "12 Angry Men Is Not an Archetype," in the Marquette University Law School Legal Studies Paper 07-08. Here is the abstract.

Fifty years after its initial release, 12 Angry Men (1957) remains an important cinematic and political work. But alas, 12 Angry Men is fundamentally atypical as a pop cultural portrayal of the jury. In the standard portrayal individual jurors do not come alive as characters. They are seen in the courtroom rather than in the deliberation room. And, most importantly, the jury does not emerge as a symbol for the larger democratic process and concomitant rule of law. Assuming that popular culture indirectly indicates the public's attitudes and expectations, the flat, uninspiring portrayal of juries in contemporary American popular culture may indicate the public's abandonment of the idea that juries are important manifestations of popular sovereignty.

Download the entire paper from SSRN here.

Twelve Angry Men

Robert P. Burns, Northwestern University School of Law, has published "Twelve Angry Men: A Jury Between Fact and Norm," in the Chicago-Kent Law Review for 2007. Here is the abstract.

This short essay was written for a symposium marking the fiftieth anniversary of the classic film's appearance. With a great cast, it remains perhaps the most compelling portrayal of an American jury in action. I begin by noting eight details in Twelve Angry Men which are so obvious that their significance may be difficult to discern. I then discuss the significance of the film's being a drama, indeed, a drama about a drama. I discuss the kind of truth that a dramatic portrayal of the jury can aspire to and what it can add to social scientific accounts. Finally, I identify the six dramatic tensions that define the film's meaning.

Download the entire essay from SSRN here.

[Cross-posted to the Seamless Web].