Last week director Sidney Lumet passed away at the age of 86. I rewatched "12 Angry Men" this afternoon and again was amazed by how simple such a great film could be.
It made me wonder if a movie like "12 Angry Men" could get made in 2011, and if it did would people go to the theater to watch it? One star, eleven character actors and one set. No special effects, or violence, just a strong script. It reminded me of Hitchcock's "Lifeboat," and to a lesser extent "Rear Window." It takes a skilled director to make a movie like that successful.
I'm not the only one who has these feelings about "12 Angry Men," because the movie is ranked number seven on IMDB's top movie list by 138,000 users. The only movies ahead of it are "Shawshank Redemption," the two first "Godfather" movies, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," "Pulp Fiction" and "Schindler's List."
