12 Angry Men - Criterion Collection (Blu-ray)

12 Angry Men, by Sidney Lumet, may be the most radical courtroom drama in cinema history. A behind-closed-doors look at the American legal system that is as riveting as it is spare, this iconic adaptation of Reginald Rose’s teleplay stars Henry Fonda as the dissenting member on a jury of white men ready to pass judgment on a Puerto Rican teenager charged with murdering his father. The result is a saga of epic proportions that plays out over a tense afternoon in one sweltering room. Lumet’s electrifying snapshot of 1950s America on the verge of change is one of the great feature film debuts.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New high-definition digital restoration, with uncom­pressed monaural soundtrack
• Frank Schaffner’s 1955 teleplay of 12 Angry Men, from the series Studio One, featuring an introduction by Ron Simon, curator at the Paley Center for Media
• Production history of 12 Angry Men, from teleplay to big-screen classic
• Archival interviews with director Sidney Lumet
• New interview with screenwriter Walter Bernstein about Lumet
• New interview with Simon about writer Reginald Rose
• Tragedy in a Temporary Town (1956), a teleplay directed by Lumet and written by Rose
• New interview with cinematographer John Bailey about director of photography Boris Kaufman
• Original theatrical trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: A new essay by writer and law professor Thane Rosenbaum