12 Angry Men

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The ability to successfully persuade endures one of the most valuable and powerful skills that an individual can possess. In the film 12 Angry Men, Henry Fonda portrays a dynamic and influential leader in his depiction of jury #8 or the architect. He achieves the art of persuasion by using his physical demeanor, inquisitiveness, and sympathy to convince the other jurors to rethink their decision and provide a fair deliberation for the defendant. The architect’s physical demeanor sways the other men toward his decision by his tone, emotions, and body language. His tone of voice profoundly affects how he interacts with the other jurors and the message of the tone of his voice can send. “I'm not trying to make anyone accept it. I'm just saying…show more content…
He constantly questions the testimonies, other juror’s opinion and the defendant council’s lack of interest in the case. Jury #8 remains unconvinced with the old man’s testimony because he didn’t believe an elderly man could possibly hear the boy shout then split-second later the sound of a body hitting the floor while the sound of a passing el-train roaring outside his window. He used his own experiences living close to the el-train to retreat his thesis by stating "I lived in a second-floor apartment near the el-line once, when the window is open and the train goes by, the noise is almost unbearable - you can hardly hear yourself think." Additionally the architect also demonstrated that it took longer than 15 seconds for the old man to get out of bed and see the murderer running downstairs thus creating a reasonable doubt about the old man's testimony. Jury #7 spends the whole moving saying jokes and lampooning other jurors. He shows no significant signs of interest on what’s occurring in the case and votes to the side he thinks will win most quickly so he can get to the ball game on time. Jury #8 gets annoyed by Jury #7’s lack of sincerity and interest to the case and questions, “What difference does it make here to the ball game?” Jury #8 also questions Jury #4, the stockbroker, his whereabouts that same week of trial to prove the point that it’s possible an individual may…show more content…
In the scene where jury #10 rant, he becomes an extreme prejudice. The sudden outburst of criticizing minorities caused the rest of the men to stand up and face away disgustedly from jury #10. When jury #8 spoke afterwards in a moderate, cool manner, everyone went back to their seats and attentively listened. Not only does jury #8 speak moderately but he politely allows others to speak for themselves. Jury #8 recalls that the young boy grew up in such poor conditions, raised in an orphanage when his mother passed away at the age of five and dealt with the daily physical fights from his father may affected him mentally. Jury #8 immediately identifies prejudice in others to embarrass and shame themselves. When jury #10 claims the women saw the boy stabbed his father, jury #8 quickly says, “How come you believed her? She’s one of “them” too, isn’t she?” Jury #10 smile slowly drops and sarcastically says, “You're a pretty smart fella, aren't you? Also in other scene Jury #10 states “Listen, I've lived among them all my life. You can't believe a word they say. You know that. I mean, they're born liars.” Jury #8 abruptly says, “Only an ignorant man can believe that...Do you think you were born with a monopoly on the truth?” Ultimately many of the emotional and

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