Recommended reading - Twelve Angry Men

 

Twelve Angry Men

Teleplay by Reginald Rose.
Introduction by David Mamet.
 
Filmed as:
12 Angry Men (1957), directed by Sidney Lumet.
12 Angry Men (1997), directed by William Friedkin.

Paperback.
Published by Penguin Classics.
First published 1954.

ISBN 13: 9780143104407
ISBN 10: 0143104403
ASIN: 0143104403
 
Description:

A blistering character study and an examination of the American melting pot and the judicial system that keeps it in check, Twelve Angry Men holds at its core a deeply patriotic faith in the U.S. legal system. The play centers on Juror Eight, who is at first the sole holdout in an 11-1 guilty vote. Eight sets his sights not on proving the other jurors wrong but rather on getting them to look at the situation in a clear-eyed way not affected by their personal prejudices or biases. Reginald Rose deliberately and carefully peels away the layers of artifice from the men and allows a fuller picture to form of them—and of America, at its best and worst.

After the critically acclaimed teleplay aired in 1954, this landmark American drama went on to become a cinematic masterpiece in 1957 starring Henry Fonda, for which Rose wrote the adaptation. More recently, Twelve Angry Men had a successful, and award-winning, run on Broadway.