Flight
We’ll now describe three scenes, from the movie 12 Angry Men, where you'll see examples of the FLIGHT attitude.
Scene 1: the jurors’ president is giving a juror the chance to express his opinion. Because of this, the president is interrupted by a member. The interruption threatens his authority. This fact makes him nervous and he almost feels inadequate and not supported in the management of the discussion.
12 Angry Men, S. Lumet, USA, 1957, R.Orion-Nova Productions (00:21:58 - 00:22:59)
Scene 2: the jurors express their opinion about the way they should judge the defendant’s guilt. However, a few jurors respect each other’s opinion. Someone states that others’ perspectives are brilliant and suitable for newspapers (humiliating statement).
12 Angry Men, S. Lumet, USA, 1957, R.Orion-Nova Productions (00:41:10 - 00:42:20)
Scene 3: the jurors discuss going back in front of the judge, because they can’t agree on anything. Some jurors think that some members of the group won’t change their mind, others are more optimistic. Suddenly a quarrel starts:
C: “You still don’t think there’s room for reasonable doubt?”
A: “No, I don’t”
B: “Maybe, you don’t fully understand the term reasonable doubt”
A: “What do you mean I don’t understand?” “They’re all alike, they come over here running from their life and before they can take a deep breath they tell us how to live! For the arrogance of this guy!!”
12 Angry Men, S. Lumet, USA, 1957, R.Orion-Nova Productions (01:05:33 - 01:06:25)
ANALYSIS OF THE SCENE
Now respond to the following questions:
- Express your observations (without interpreting or evaluating) about the dynamics between the jurors that you read above.
- When do you see a “FIGHT” attitude?
- What provokes this behavior?
- What effect does this behavior (probably) have on the following dynamics?