12 Angry Men is a 1957 American film that Bob Zadek has called one of the greatest American movies ever made and a movie supportive and respectful of American values. Zadek discussed the film on The Bob Zadek Show in at least two episodes, using it once as the thematic frame for a discussion of California’s Section 3550 and once as a passing recommendation during a conversation about the right to trial by jury.
Production and plot as described by Zadek
Zadek said the film was made in the ’50s by Henry Fonda, who funded it, and that it had a budget of $700,000. He described it as beautifully written and said that if one wanted to find a movie supportive and respectful of American values, 12 Angry Men is the movie to watch. California’s New Union Gag Order Violates 1st Amendment (2020)
The whole movie takes place in a jury room, Zadek said. He described the plot as involving 12 jurors asked to decide the fate of a minority young man accused of committing a murder. The jurors, he said, are a wonderful cross-section of American men of various walks of life; he noted that it happened to be all male but said that was besides the point. California’s New Union Gag Order Violates 1st Amendment (2020)
Zadek said that when the movie starts the jurors are pretty convinced that the murder was done, and that they take a first vote that is 11 to 1 in favor of conviction, which would have been death to the alleged perpetrator. A discussion starts, and there is a lot of bias in the movie, he said; some of the characters are strongly biased against the minority alleged perpetrator, while others are more neutral. When some jurors start to express their opinion that they should go slow and look at the evidence, the more bigoted jurors start to say, in a very aggressive way, that they all know he is guilty. California’s New Union Gag Order Violates 1st Amendment (2020)
Zadek described one juror in the middle, a kind of meek middle-aged man, who speaks up and says to the bigot, “No, no. Let this man speak. I want to hear. Let this man speak.” Zadek said he would not be a spoiler and would not tell the plot. California’s New Union Gag Order Violates 1st Amendment (2020)
The film as theme for a free speech episode
Zadek used the film’s line as the theme for a July 2020 episode of The Bob Zadek Show concerning California’s Section 3550, a statute that prohibits public officials from making statements that might “deter or discourage” union membership. He said that implicit in the request to let a person speak is the need for fairness, for democracy, for civilization to go forward. Speakers must have the right to speak, he said, and far more importantly, listeners have a right to learn what the speaker wants to say. Once we start denying the speaker the right to speak and the listener the right to listen and the right to have access to the information, he said, we’re doomed. California’s New Union Gag Order Violates 1st Amendment (2020)
The episode’s guests were Terry Pell of the Center for Individual Rights and school board member Jeffrey Barke. Barke responded to Zadek’s film discussion by thanking him, saying that he and his wife now had a movie to watch on Netflix that night and that he did not think he had seen 12 Angry Men before. California’s New Union Gag Order Violates 1st Amendment (2020)
The film as a recommendation in a jury trial episode
In a November 2022 episode on the right to trial by jury, Zadek interrupted a discussion with guest Carissa Hessick to recommend the film. He called it the best movie ever made, named Henry Fonda, and said it was a must watch. He told listeners to stop listening to the podcast, turn it off, put it on pause, go watch 12 Angry Men, then come back. He said he had to sneak that in and that he loved Henry Fonda’s portrayal. What happened to the right to a trial by jury? (2022)
The recommendation came as Zadek was discussing the founders and Valley Forge, saying that the jury trial was crucial and that the people who died at Valley Forge did so to protect the right to be tried by a jury of one’s peers. What happened to the right to a trial by jury? (2022)
Across episodes
Two episodes touch on 12 Angry Men: the July 2020 episode on California’s Section 3550, where Zadek built the episode’s theme around the film’s line “Let this man speak,” and the November 2022 episode on the right to trial by jury, where he recommended the film as a plug during a discussion of jury rights. The excerpts show no development in Zadek’s treatment of the film between the two episodes; in both he praises it as a great American movie, and in neither does a guest offer substantive analysis of the film itself.
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not state the film’s director, its full cast, its release date beyond Zadek’s reference to the ’50s, or its reception beyond Zadek’s own praise. They do not describe the film’s ending or the verdict the jury reaches. They do not state whether Zadek discussed the film on any other episode of the show, or whether any guest other than Barke responded to his discussion of it.