12 Angry Men - Critical Thinkers
The Jury Who Had To Use Thinking Skills
In Twelve Angry Men, a young man is on trial for stabbing and killing his father. The
movie focuses on twelve randomly selected citizens who are assigned the duty of
determining the fate of this 19 year old man. The jury is supposed to examine certain
facts and determine the truth based solely on the evidence presented to them in court. It is
assumed that the jurors will judge fairly and without personal bias. Basically, the jurors
need to use critical thinking during this trial to figure out what evidence is factual and
what evidence is false. Throughout the film, some jurors were better at critical thinking
than others, some had obstacles to overcome before they could use good critical thinking
skills, and yet others became critical thinkers at different points during the movie.
Critical thinking played a key role in Twelve Angry Men. In order to be able to think
outside the box, one must possess the ability to think unbiaslly, not bring personal
issues into play, not be scared to put the ideas and doubts on the table, and to be level
headed. The juror who possessed these skills the best and applied them better than his
eleven other companions was juror number 8, played by Henry Fonda. At the beginning
of the movie, juror 8 was the only one to vote not guilty on the first vote. Fonda's
character plainly stated "It's not easy for me to raise my hand and send a boy to die
without talking about it first". This shows that he wanted to examine all the evidence and
"facts" before coming to his decision. As the movie went on, juror 8 kept posing
questions like "could it be possible" and "could he be wrong" to remind others that about
reasonable doubt. Then Fonda's character helped find holes in two key pieces of
evidence, one being the knife used in the murder. The switchblade knife was supposed to
one of a kind, but juror 8 takes a knife out of his pocket and jams it into the table next to
the knife that
In Twelve Angry Men, a young man is on trial for stabbing and killing his father. The
movie focuses on twelve randomly selected citizens who are assigned the duty of
determining the fate of this 19 year old man. The jury is supposed to examine certain
facts and determine the truth based solely on the evidence presented to them in court. It is
assumed that the jurors will judge fairly and without personal bias. Basically, the jurors
need to use critical thinking during this trial to figure out what evidence is factual and
what evidence is false. Throughout the film, some jurors were better at critical thinking
than others, some had obstacles to overcome before they could use good critical thinking
skills, and yet others became critical thinkers at different points during the movie.
Critical thinking played a key role in Twelve Angry Men. In order to be able to think
outside the box, one must possess the ability to think unbiaslly, not bring personal
issues into play, not be scared to put the ideas and doubts on the table, and to be level
headed. The juror who possessed these skills the best and applied them better than his
eleven other companions was juror number 8, played by Henry Fonda. At the beginning
of the movie, juror 8 was the only one to vote not guilty on the first vote. Fonda's
character plainly stated "It's not easy for me to raise my hand and send a boy to die
without talking about it first". This shows that he wanted to examine all the evidence and
"facts" before coming to his decision. As the movie went on, juror 8 kept posing
questions like "could it be possible" and "could he be wrong" to remind others that about
reasonable doubt. Then Fonda's character helped find holes in two key pieces of
evidence, one being the knife used in the murder. The switchblade knife was supposed to
one of a kind, but juror 8 takes a knife out of his pocket and jams it into the table next to
the knife that