The Jury Speaks -- Update your Queue, and Mark Your Calendars

I stumbled on this jewel thanks to TCM's month of Oscar-winning movies, back to back with another good find, The Day of the Jackal. (A 1970s thriller about the attempted assassination of then-French president Charles de Gaulle, without which the Bourne movies and likely all other quality spy thrillers since would not exist.) This one's plot is simple -- a jury of the titular individuals must deliver a unanimous verdict in a murder trial, that of an anonymous, beleaguered looking young man seen only momentarily at the beginning, who is accused of stabbing his father to death after an abusive argument. After the very brief intro in the courtroom, the remainder of the film is spent in the sweltering confines of the jury room where the 12 men collect to debate the evidence and determine the young man's fate, knowing that a guilty verdict will send him to the electric chair.

The initial vote is 11-1 for a guilty verdict -- the sole abstainee the slender, sagging-shouldered Henry Fonda. And what follows is a riveting examination of the case's key witnesses and testimony couched in the lively back and forth among the characters. The conversation, which starts cool and loose in the opening sequences, builds into a sweaty, sometimes angry, affair as the characters' tempers flare and rise alongside the temperature of the room.

It is fascinating to watch.

Sidney Lumet (of Network, Serpico, and half a million other classics), in his directorial debut, spins up the tension masterfully, using close ups and a gradually lowered camera perspective to emphasize the encroaching physical space and peer pressure as the group begins their slow, inexorable swing towards a unanimous decision. The way Lumet methodically fleshes out the characters and doles out the evidence is irresistible, with each individual gradually revealing more of themselves as they support or pokes holes in the testimony and witnesses. The cast is superb and their interpersonal dynamics -- between the hot-headed Ed Begley and Lee J. Cobb; the dispassionate Joseph Sweeney and E.G. Marshall; the loud-mouthed Jack Warden; the quietly volatile Jack Klugman -- are positively mesmerizing.

I had a million other things I needed to accomplish today, but was absolutely unable to tear myself away from the screen. Movies like this are like a new best friend or girlfriend -- you're amazed they avoided your detection for so long, but once discovered you can't talk about anything else. Netflix or rent this one and prepare to lose yourself completely for the next hour and a half -- brilliant, brilliant stuff.

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As for the bit in the headline about marking your calendars, I have only two things to say -- Radiohead, and Nails.

August 1 - 3. Lollapalooza. One of the best times I've ever had in my fair city by the lake. The prettiest city in the country, at the best time of year, with the best bands in the world. Get ready for the 2008 update.

Tickets go on sale March 25 -- check the details here and here. Fitz, Whit, and I are in. Join the coalition. You've been warned...

--BdS