The Penguin Classics debut that inspired a classic film and a current Broadway revival

Reginald Rose-’s landmark American drama was a critically acclaimed teleplay, and went on to become a cinematic masterpiece in 1957 starring Henry Fonda, for which Rose wrote the adaptation. A blistering character study and an examination of the American melting pot and the judicial system that keeps it in check, Twelve Angry Men holds at its core a deeply patriotic belief in the U.S. legal system. The story-’s focal point, known only as Juror Eight, is at first the sole holdout in an 11-1 guilty vote. Eight sets his sights not on proving the other jurors wrong but rather on getting them to look at the situation in a clear-eyed way not affected by their personal biases. Rose deliberately and carefully peels away the layers of artifice from the men and allows a fuller picture of America, at its best and worst, to form.

雷金納德•羅斯（Reginald Rose），1920年齣生於美國曼哈頓，著名劇作傢。在創作中善於用現實主義的手法錶現有爭議的社會和政治問題，是上世紀美國電視劇本創作“黃金年代”的代錶性作傢，多次獲得艾美奬。於2002年病逝。