Getting the Facts v. Opinion  During the first 20 minutes of the film, take notes as a member of the jury, get only facts eliminate the opinions.

Director’s choices  Imagine you are the director/writer of this film and are focused on making an interesting and engaging film. What is your purpose in including this vote? Also make a prediction and explain your reasoning as to the result of the vote at this point. Be precise.

Quick Question  Does Henry Fonda finding a similar knife throw out the knife as evidence? Is the knife being unusual enough to be identified as the kid’s just an opinion now?”

Civics: Lawyers and Juries  Question: Which is more important to the verdict, the Lawyers or the individuals sitting on the jury? Discuss how they examine the evidence. Does this jury examine the evidence of the trial only on the facts presented by the lawyers?

You Decide  Is the boy guilty or not guilty based on the evidence? Write a paragraph to respond to this supporting the position you take with factual evidence taken from the trial?  Play devil’s advocate against Henry Fonda try to pick his case apart. (It may be easier than you think.)

Be a director…  “One of the complaints about this film is that it takes place only in the jury room, the scene never changes. However, could there be a purpose to this? Think about how your opinions of the guilt and innocence would change if the film had shown you the trial first, or even the crime. What is the effect of beginning the film with the jury entering the jury room on the audience? How does it provide you with a similar situation to the jury members themselves?”

Devil’s Advocate  Take one of the pieces of evidence the “Not Guilty” crowd presents and argue against it. See if you can find a flaw in their logic.

What is evidence?  “Henry Fonda and the loud juror argue several times. Once the loud juror yells: ‘I’ll kill ya’ this is used as evidence in the trial when Fonda says: ‘You don’t really mean that you’ll kill me…’ Is this actually evidence in this boys case?”

“I’m not much for supposing…”  In the end, the result of this Jury is the correct one, even though there is no way you can know what actually happened. These twelve men may very well be freeing a boy who has committed murder and might commit another one. However, why is this the absolute 100% correct verdict?